


Love Can Melt the Ice

by winryofresembool



Series: Ice skating AU [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Olympics, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Ice Skating AU, alternative universe, bits of everything tbh, figure skating, hints of other ships as well - Freeform, ice hockey, mostly edwin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2019-09-07 06:58:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 63,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16849315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winryofresembool/pseuds/winryofresembool
Summary: Edward Elric, a hockey player from Amestris, participates in his first ever Olympics. The only thing he's planning to get from there is a gold medal. However, when he accidentally bumps into a childhood friend, a talented figure skater Winry Rockbell, he learns there are things bigger than hockey.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic got its start during the 2018 winter Olympics when I saw fellow FMA people talking about au:s in which Roy and Riza were ice dancers. I wanted to make something similar with Edwin, but I felt hockey would be more Ed's kind of sport, so I made him a hockey player instead. I had no plans to make it a multichapter fic, but somehow this au just sucked me into it, and here we are, 18 chapters (and more still coming) later. This fic was originally posted on tumblr, but I finally gained the courage to post it here as well. Since most of it is finished already, I'm going to try posting about a chapter per day, but we'll see how that goes. Please let me know what you think (and be gentle, please), because this fic is very important to me. Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: Queen Arakawa owns all the characters used in this story. I'm just playing with them a bit.

Edward Elric, the youngest hockey player on team Amestris, had always considered himself a good skater. Ever since learning to skate and starting to play hockey with kids of his age, he was always a couple of steps ahead of them. Not even the prosthetic arm he got after a severe accident when he was 11 slowed him down, and he eventually made it to the national team as the youngest skater team Amestris had ever had. Sometimes his brother had to stop him from spending too much time at the ice rinks, though, because he had gotten frost bites more than once in the past, but Ed never complained about them. It was his fault the accident had happened (or so he thought), so he had decided he would carry the consequences without complaints.

Because Ed was so focused on getting forward in his career, he rarely followed other sports or paid attention to other athletes. If he had done so, he would probably have noticed a blonde haired, blue eyed figure skater from his country far before the Olympic games where they both were competing.

One day, after the morning practice, Ed and a couple of his teammates, Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes, were debating what they should do before the lunch that wouldn’t take place for another hour. Snowboarding had piqued Ed’s interest, but the other two decided they’d like to see figure skating at the nearby arena. Maes’ soon-to-be wife Gracia was on the figure skating team, and Ed knew her friend, a hockey player Riza Hawkeye, would likely be watching her practice too, trying to get some tips. The young man swore Riza and Roy had something going on, even though they never admitted it out loud. They would exchange sneaky looks every once in a while, and a couple of times Ed had seen their fingers brush against each other in a way that looked like it was no accident.

However, when the hockey players made it to figure skating arena, Ed stopped caring about his teammates or their women. On the ice was a young woman, about his age, he estimated, wearing a deep blue, short dress (how the figure skaters could perform in so few clothes, Ed would never understand), her blonde hair on a neat bun aside from the tresses that framed her face. She was beautiful, Ed admitted that much, but to his surprise he realized that he wasn’t fixated on her face, or the dress, or not even her well toned legs. Instead, he was amazed by her graceful, well practiced moves. How could a girl that small (he cringed at the word his brain had picked) slide on the ice so fast? How could she spin like that without getting her head all messed up? What about those jumps? Turns? Everything? Even her simply skating forward made Ed feel like he still had a lot to learn. She looked so focused and determined, like there was nothing else but the ice in her small world. Ed decided that he needed to meet this girl, even if it was just for some skating lessons.

“Hey? Guys?” He pointed towards the ice. “Who is this girl?”

“What, you don’t know her? She’s only the most talented figure skater Amestris has seen in years! After my Gracia, of course,” Hughes exclaimed, waving his hands with disbelief.

“I can see that she’s good, but who. is. she?” Ed repeated his question, slighty frustrated.

“Winry Rockbell. Same age as you. Lives in Rush Valley, but I think she has roots in your hometown. She also won the nationals for the third time in a row this winter. I heard from Gracia that she has interesting hobbies, she namely wants to be a mechanic once she’s done with her skating career,” Maes responded and waved to his fiancée who was skating towards the locker room.

The name Rockbell sounded for some reason familiar to Ed, but he couldn't figure out why. “Really? What kind of mechanics, exactly?” He found himself interested in that detail.

“I don’t know, all kinds? Although I think Gracia said something about her interest in automails once… Wait a minute, are you thinking…?”

“I’M NOT THINKING ABOUT ANYTHING!” Ed denied immediately. He covered his face in his hands, trying to hide how flustered he was, but his attempt failed badly. Roy snickered at him on the background.

“Uhm. Do you, maybe, think Gracia could introduce us to her?” He asked after a while, embarrassment audible in his voice. “I mean… I’dliketogetsomeskatingtipsfromher!”

“I don’t think that will be an issue! But don’t think about hitting on her, I’m fairly sure she’s seeing someone already,” Maes teased even though he knew that Winry was single. Pushing Ed’s buttons was Roy and his favorite pastime.

“And why exactly would I care about that?” Ed growled, but that made both Hughes and Mustang laugh even more.

“Because I have never seen you look at a girl like that before. I know that expression. It’s the same one I have when I look at my Gracia.”

“Shut up.” Ed turned dramatically to leave, but Gracia decided to show up in that moment, and the young hockey player knew it was too late to back off now.

“My beautiful fiancé! I missed you!” Maes yelled and pulled the woman into an embrace.

“Maes, you can calm down. I saw you yesterday.” Gracia answered, but seemed pretty happy about the attention she got.

“Hey, Edward here wants to meet our future champ!” Hughes let Gracia go, and pointed towards the girl who was still on the ice. “Do you think you could ask her to join us at lunch?”

“I think she’s already doing the final elements of her performance, shouldn’t take her too long to finish. I’ll see what I can do,” Gracia winked at Ed who blushed brightly. The boy turned his attention back to the ice and saw Winry lift her leg above her head from behind and starting to spin. It went on for a long while, and Ed didn’t even realize he was holding his breath until she finally stopped and had her eyes focused on the group. Acknowledging their presence, she waved her hand slightly and continued her routine until she did the final move and bowed to her audience just like she would do in a real situation.

“Hey, Winry!” Gracia yelled at the girl who skated towards her friend, smiling happily. For some reason Ed felt a little bit dizzy watching her smile, as if he had been the one spinning on the ice. He didn’t understand what was wrong with him.

“Gracia! What’s up?” Winry asked curiously.  
“I’d like you to meet a couple of friends! This of course is my fiancé, Maes, and here are his teammates Roy Mustang and Edward Elric.”

Winry inhaled sharply when she heard the latter name and saw the golden eyes. Ed found himself interested in his shoes suddenly, so he didn’t notice that her cheeks turned red as she recognized him.

“Edward? I heard that you made it to the national team, but I wasn’t expecting… hi! Do you… do you remember me?”

“What? How would I remember you?” Ed asked, confused.

“We used to play together when we were toddlers! You, me and Al! That was before you guys moved away, and my parents… you know… and then I and Granny moved to Rush Valley because of her business.”

“Oh… Fuck… sorry… I mean… that was you?! I do remember that girl, but I never made the connection… You have grown… quite a bit… since then.” Ed laughed awkwardly, but his laughter made Winry relax and she gave him that bright smile again.

“I could say the same about you. Ever since I heard we’d both be competing at the Olympics I wanted to meet you, but I wasn’t expecting you to walk right here,” she giggled.

Maes decided to push things forward a bit, and commended: “You know, Ed wanted to ask you some skating tips.”

“You do?” Winry asked, her mouth forming a little ‘o’ as she turned her attention back to Ed.

“Uh, yeah.” Ed rubbed the back of his neck and nodded slightly.

“That’s kinda funny because I remember that when we were like 4 and learning to skate together, you were very loud and clear about the fact that you wouldn’t take any advice from me. I guess some things do change!”

“Now that you mention it, I remember that too, and actually, it was only because you pushed me into the snow face forward!”

“Well, /I/ only did it because you and your brother had tied my skate laces together, so I fell instantly when I hit the ice!”

“This can’t be anything but a beginning of a beautiful love story,” Maes whispered to Gracia who shook her head.

“Are you so sure about that?” Gracia whispered back.

“Well, just look at them.” Maes gestured towards them. "They are like us when we were young."  
The two childhood friends were already laughing at their memories when Maes said that.

Eventually Ed gained enough confidence to ask Winry if she could come see the hockey team’s practice the next day and show them how she skated so effortlessly. Winry blushed at the compliment, but even though her face felt hot, she had goosebumps on her arms. She realized she should to go to change into warmer clothes, but she promised she’d meet the others at the lunch after that.

Ed grinned widely all the way to the restaurant, noticing that he was already looking forward to the upcoming practice and the lunch.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Another chapter today.

The lunch progressed quite nicely, with Ed and Winry catching up with each other and sharing what had happened to them after their families had left Resembool behind. However, Ed didn’t bring up the accident that had led to him losing his arm, and he was still wearing his gloves while he was eating. Ed’s teammates noticed that he was mostly talking about Al, and how he was likely to be drafted first overall in Amestris’ biggest hockey league the next summer. He was clearly very proud of his brother, while he belittled his own achievements quite a bit.

Perhaps the most notable incident during the lunch occurred when Winry tried to shake Ed’s hand as she promised to meet the guys the next morning when she had free time (but only if they wouldn’t tell her coach, because if he ever found out, he would kill Winry for putting herself into a potentially risky situation. What if an accident happened and her Olympic journey ended?) Ed pulled his right hand away quickly, and offered his left hand instead, and after some confused staring Winry finally took it. She didn’t understand why he had done that, but she did pay attention to the weird sound Ed’s right arm made and narrowed her eyes. It seemed he wasn’t telling her something… and she was determined to figure out what it was.

“Sorry, I think I hurt my wrist a bit at the practice, I want to let it rest now…” Ed tried to explain, and although he didn’t sound very convincing, Winry didn’t push it further.

The next day Edward found himself at the ice rink far earlier than usual. He had slept quite restlessly, but instead of his usual nightmares, a blonde-haired figure had appeared in his dreams. He was a bit over the edge the entire way to the practice, and not even Roy bothered to tease him too much.

Ed was already on the ice when Winry finally showed up with skates in her arms and a tired smile on her face. Even though as an athlete she did have a pretty strict schedule, she had never been a morning person, because instead of going to sleep early she rather read “Automail weekly” or played with her tools. So many times her coach Mr. Garfiel (who happened to know a good deal about mechanics too) had had to order her to go to bed when she had passed out on the sofa in an awkward position with her mechanics books and magazines around her.

The previous evening, she had run into the bobsleigh team and with starry eyes asked them to tell more about their sleighs. One of the guys had offered to share his information over a late dinner, and Winry had agreed to join him. However, it turned out the man was more interested in getting the figure skater into his hotel room, so Winry quickly turned him down and withdrew into her own room. She spent the rest of the evening on the internet, searching how bobsleighs were made.

Back at the ice rink, Winry had to cover her mouth to hide her yawn as she approached Ed who asked her teasingly: “Not a morning person?”

“I got fixated on something last night and didn’t notice the time… You guys happen to have coffee in the locker room?”

“Yeah, we do, but it’s probably better if you don’t go there right now. Shirtless Mustang. No one wants to see that.”

“Oh,” Winry blushed and laughed shyly.

“But I could get you some coffee if you want to,” Ed suggested, and Winry accepted his offer gratefully.

“Thanks! Smells so good.” She took the cup from Ed when he returned and gave him a smile that left Ed flustered, and he simply nodded at her.

As Winry was sipping her coffee, a voice behind the pair said: “What do we have here? Elric, since when do you bring people coffee?”

“Hey, just because you are my captain, doesn’t mean you can boss me around like some…” Ed gave Roy Mustang a dark look, but he didn’t want to go for his best insults now that this girl was right next to him.

“Short of insults? How lame, Fullmetal.”

Winry could practically see steam coming out of Ed’s ears as he glared at Mustang furiously. Where did that nickname come from, she wondered, but didn’t have a chance to ask, because Ed was already yelling:

“Don’t. call. me. that! Also, if someone’s short of something, that’s…”

“Relax, Elric, he’s just trying to embarrass you in front of Ms. Rockbell,” Hughes tried to calm him down, and to his surprise Ed did take a deep breath and turn his attention back to Winry.

“So… how about we just start?”

“Sounds good,” Winry agreed, and after putting her skates on on the bench, she stepped on the ice. She looked like a whole different person compared to the one who had just drunk coffee as she started gliding around effortlessly.

“How do you do that? I have skated just as long as you have, but…” Ed marveled.

“I’m sure it’s just the way we practice. You guys focus on the speed, your stamina, the stickhandling, taking and giving hits, and so on, while we focus on doing our moves as cleanly as possible. Balance is of course really important, and we for example get a lot of tips on how to not get dizzy when spinning.”

She speeded a couple of meters and spun for a long while. Ed frowned and asked:

“Do you think I could learn to do that?”

“Like I do? It requires years of work. I don’t doubt your skills, but spinning probably won’t help you score more, so that’s not something you should spend a lot of time on. But, I can teach you some basics that might help you to improve your balance in a different way than the practice you guys do.”

“Sounds good to me.”

It turned out Winry was right to start from the basics. Ed had to try the arabesque spiral many, many times before he managed to make it look somewhat decent (and he huffed in annoyance when Winry told him it was one of the first moves a figure skater learns). He turned red when Winry decided to show how the position should look like and put her hands on his waist to adjust him. It helped though, because after that his movements looked notably better and he started to gain confidence.

“You know what?” Winry joked when Ed decided to take a breather, “you almost looked pretty out there.”

That made Ed’s entire team burst out laughing, and the young man looked like he could kill someone.

“Hey, I meant it in a good way,” Winry tried to cool him down, “you have already improved a lot. How do you think I would look like if I switched to hockey gear and tried the things you are good at?”

Ed almost slipped “better than me for sure,” but he managed to keep his mouth shut this time.

After that it was time to switch to jumps, and Winry suggested Ed would change into figure skates because the blades in the hockey skates made jumping difficult, but Ed didn’t listen. After falling twice while trying a basic waltz jump, he finally gave in and took the skates Winry had brought with her (she had snuck an extra pair that no one used from the locker room after deciding to help the boy). He stumbled a bit at first, but eventually figured out how the skates worked and managed to do a jump that could be counted as the waltz jump. To Ed’s annoyance, Roy had mastered it first, and he was now flexing his muscles to Riza Hawkeye who for some reason had decided to show up at the men’s practice, but Riza seemed rather uninterested.

“Captain Bastard, stop that and focus on the practice,” Ed snapped, but Winry noted that perhaps Ed could take a break too if he managed to do an axel (“not fair, Mustang has practiced figure skating with his aunt his entire childhood!”) with hockey skates on. Of course Ed didn’t manage to do that, but he did the waltz jump (as cleanly as a hockey player can) soon after that, and Winry promised him a breather.

“So, when is it time for the twists?” Ed asked as he and Winry were sitting on the bench taking a sip from their water bottles.

“If you want to try spinning, perhaps the best way to start would be to use the correct term.” Winry nudged Ed’s shoulder with hers teasingly.

“Oh, two can play this game. How about you try to explain icing to me.”

“I have no idea why I would need to, but fine: it’s the sugary thing you put on cupcakes and stuff.”

When Ed rolled his eyes, she added: “Oh come on, do you really think I don’t know anything about hockey? An icing occurs when you shoot the puck across the center red line and the opposing team’s goal line, and no one touches the puck before it crosses the goal line.”

Ed just stared at the girl in surprise, and she explained:

“I used to play hockey until I was like 12 and decided to start focusing on figure skating.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. Sometimes I kinda missed hockey when I was younger. But then I saw in some news that you had scored another hat trick or something and it drove me forward in my own goal to become a good figure skater.”

“Did you really pay attention to my doings even though we hadn’t seen each other for years?” Ed asked in amazement.

“I know this is silly because we were like 5 when we were separated, but… I always considered you my friend, even though we were so young back then. I often wished I could have contacted you or traveled to Resembool but I never could for various reasons.”

“Oh. That’s… nice of you.”

They had been so absorbed by the conversation that they didn't realize how long they had been sitting there until someone whistled behind them and exclaimed:

“Yoo lovebirds! Don’t you think the break is over? Mustang here is going crazy.”

“Ugh… I guess he’s right,” Ed sighed and extended his arm to help Winry up from the bench. That was a mistake, though: he was only wearing his thin glove, not the hockey one, on his right hand, and Winry could feel the hardness of it through the glove. She shot a very confused look towards Ed, and from his face she could see that he had just realized what had just happened.

“Ed, what’s wrong with your hand?”


	3. Chapter 3

“Ed, what’s wrong with your hand?”

Ed quickly pulled his right hand from Winry’s and tried to think of a way to avoid answering her question. However, from Winry’s stubborn stare he knew that wouldn’t be easy.

“N-nothing?” he attempted lamely, but Winry didn’t believe that for a moment. She decided there was no point in tip toeing around the topic and asked directly:  
“Do you… do you have a prosthetic arm?”

What surprised Ed was that instead of sounding slightly scared, like many had sounded when they had found out about his automail, Winry sounded curious. And maybe slightly worried, but that wasn’t so surprising.

He lowered his voice so only Winry could hear his answer: “Fine, I do, but please keep your voice down.”

“Huh? I thought your teammates know about it?”

“Yes, but in a place like this you never know who might be listening… Hell would break loose if people found out about this.”

“What do you mean?” Winry asked, confused.

“Well, can you imagine what people would do if they heard someone was playing with a metal arm on the national team? They would immediately roast me out of here.”

“Oh…”

Winry hadn’t considered someone could possibly have an issue with an automail, so she was embarrassed she hadn’t immediately realized it. Thankfully, Ed saved her from further embarrassment by continuing:

“Yeah. My arm could cause someone some serious damage if I wasn’t careful, and not just that, it’s also a risk to myself. If I hit my shoulder in a wrong way and it got inflamed… that would be really bad.”

“But you’re still willing to take the risk?”

“Hockey is one of the few things that makes me happy, I’m not gonna give up on it just because of this… issue.” Ed looked at Winry darkly. “I feel I owe it to my brother who’s been rooting for me this entire time.”

“You’re doing this for Alphonse?” Winry asked. This man continued surprising her.

“Mm." Ed nodded. "He’s the only family I really have left, and the reason why I didn’t quit when things got difficult. He is expecting me to keep doing my best every day."

“Wow. You know, you keep impressing me. I’m sorry, but my first impression of you was that you are probably someone who’s playing for just the money or something of that nature. But sounds like I was wrong,” Winry added softly.

Ed was visibly flustered. He wanted to say he really wasn’t as noble as he had just made himself sound, but he didn’t have time because Winry asked:  
“You know… this is gonna sound weird, but… can I see it? The arm?”

“Uh… I guess," Ed answered, glancing his teammates quickly. "But not here, let’s go to our locker room. It’s OK, no one’s there right now.”

He informed his teammates that he’d take a short break and pulled Winry with him.

Back in the locker room, Ed took his hockey jersey off and rolled up the sleeve of his undershirt. A thick layer of bandage covered the arm made of metal, and he removed it too. He didn’t know how he had expected Winry to react to seeing his automail, but it hadn’t been like this: she started clapping her hands and made a high-pitched sound that couldn’t be anything but a squeal of excitement. Her eyes were shining brighter than he had seen so far.

“Um, so, here it is,” Ed said awkwardly as he lifted his metal arm, so Winry could see it better.

“It is so pretty! One day I’m gonna build one of these!” she exclaimed happily as she examined the automail.

“Really?” Ed had a hard time imagining someone so graceful as Winry wearing overalls, oil and grease on her face and hands, but on the other hand, she hadn’t minded getting messy playing with the boys as a child either.

“You’ll see! Oh, but… can I ask you… what exactly happened? Why do you have an automail arm?”

“It’s not something I like talking about… I was 11… and an accident happened. Afterwards I got a blood poisoning and it got so bad the entire arm had to be removed…”

“That… sounds… I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine how awful that must have been. But what made you decide to get an automail arm? I’ve heard the operations are extremely painful and difficult to do?”

“To be honest… It wasn’t really me who made that decision. Or it was, but Mustang helped quite a lot.”

“Your teammate?”

“Yeah, him. His organization had hired him to scout a few promising young players while he was scratched due to a lower body injury… And he came to Resembool. He had heard about me, but he didn’t know about my accident until we met. When he saw what had happened, he immediately told me about a surgeon who had helped one of his old playing mates in a similar situation.”

He stared at something Winry couldn’t see with an unreadable expression and continued:  
“I didn’t make my decision right away, but Al encouraged me, so only like a month later I had my surgery, and after that I’ve been the most well-kept secret of the hockey world. There have been a couple of cases where someone has suspected something, but we’ve managed to make them shut up, and here I am.”

“What makes you believe I won’t tell anyone anything? Like you said, it is dangerous to play with that arm,” Winry asked curiously, even though she had no intentions to report him.

“I can’t say I know you very well…” He gave Winry a look that was supposed to be flirty. “… But I still got a feeling that you are someone I can trust. I wouldn’t have told you about this otherwise.”

“You are right, I’m not gonna report you to anyone…” Winry said and smirked slyly, “but on one condition.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“That you are gonna let me ask you questions about your automail – just your automail, you don’t need to tell me what happened to you if you don’t want to – and give it a proper check-up.”

“Huh? That’s an… extraordinary wish.”

Winry shifted uncomfortably on the bench, thinking that she was making Ed think she was a weirdo, but Ed didn’t seem too shocked when she finally dared to glance at him. Even so, she wanted to explain:  
“This is going to sound like a very weird coincidence… But I want to become an automail mechanic when I retire from figure skating. You know, a girl’s gotta have dreams off the ice too… So, how about it?”

“Well, if that’s all you ask… It’s a deal! Do you have anything to do tomorrow after lunch?” Ed asked, trying to not sound too excited.

“No." Winry shook her head. "We always take our naps after the lunch, but if I’m honest, I’m not much of a daydreamer anyway, so that time sounds good to me!”

“Great! I’ll see you then. Oh, and by the way… you are not the only one with… unconventional off-ice interests…” Ed had no idea what made him confess that, but it was too late to back out now.

“Hmm? What do you like then?” Winry asked curiously.

“Biochemistry."

“Edward Elric, the famous hockey player and the developer of a groundbreaking biochemistry theory… I like that,” Winry said, and rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment.

“Are you making fun of me?” Ed acted hurt, but Winry could see he wasn’t being too serious.

“Noo! Why would I? Chemistry nerd.” She nudged him lightly in the arm.

“Automail freak.”

They both laughed at the names they had just given each other but realized then that the others were probably already waiting for them. Mustang made an inappropriate comment about where he thought the two had been, but other than that, no one else made a scene about their lateness.

Winry continued teaching the guys the basics of spinning, and even complimented Ed a bit (Maes smiled knowingly on the background as she did that), and the duo finished the day by promising each other that after the season they’d have a skill competition at the Resembool rink.

________________________________________  
The next day after the lunch Winry found herself in front of Ed’s hotel room. She knocked on the door once, but nothing happened. The figure skater didn’t think much of it; maybe Ed was in the bathroom or had fallen asleep on his bed. But when she knocked again after a minute and still heard nothing, she started getting restless. She was behind the right door, right? And they had definitely been talking about 12 o’clock?

“Ed! It’s me, Winry!” she yelled. Ed’s door stayed closed, but Roy Mustang had apparently heard her voice, and he peeked out of his hotel room.

“Uh, this is Ed’s room, right?” Winry asked him.

“Yeah.”

“Did you see if he came here after the lunch?”

“I was with Ms. Hawkeye so I’m not sure, but I believe he did because he always reads his chemistry books in his room on his free time…”

“Oh. OK. Thanks!” Winry said, and Roy turned to go back to his room. But before he had time to close his door, Winry heard a bloodcurdling scream from Ed’s room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think because it's literally what motivates me to write this fic! Ed's behavior might seem a bit weird in this chapter but it will be explained later on.  
> (Also, I won't be able to edit the next chapter until Sunday the earliest as I'm leaving for a vacation, but I'll be back soon enough)

“Ed! Ed, please answer me!” Winry yelled through the door and knocked on it hard. She swore that she’d get her toolbox and break into his room if that was what it took. Someone might be in Ed’s room hurting him… What if someone had heard their conversation about Ed’s automail and was now threatening him? Or something equally horrifying?

Winry was just about to return into her room when she heard steps from Ed’s room, and a few moments later the door opened. Winry took an attack stance, ready to fight if someone had done something to her friend, but she relaxed quickly when it was Ed who came out. He seemed unharmed, but Winry quickly realized he was covered in sweat and looked disheveled and slightly frightened, though he tried to cover it.

“Is… is everything OK? I heard screams from your room and thought…” Winry asked quietly.

Ed seemed visibly embarrassed as he answered: “Um, yeah… I got back from lunch early and accidentally fell asleep. What are you doing here anyway?”

“Did you already forget we were supposed to…” Winry took a quick glance towards Mustang who was still observing the two of them. “… meet today? After lunch?”

“Meet?" Roy frowned. "In his hotel room? Fullmetal, we have rules about that!”

“Shut up, Mustang! It isn’t what you think it is. Sorry, Winry, I didn’t forget, I just kinda…”

“Forgot?”

“No, I fell asleep and saw a nightmare and… ugh, fine, whatever.”

“Were you screaming in your sleep?” Winry asked worriedly.

“Maybe, I don’t know…” Ed answered hesitantly. “Can we go inside? I don’t want everyone to hear our conversation."

Ed gave Mustang a look that told him he could go now and let Winry into his room.

“Nice place,” Winry commented, nodding towards the mess Ed had made on his floor. Hockey equipment, laundry and chemistry books were all in a huge pile next to his bed.

“Yeah, sorry about that… I haven’t really had time to clean.” Ed rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

Suddenly Winry’s eyes caught a familiar children’s novel among the biochemistry books on the floor and took it in her hands:

“You like The Adventures of Mr. Magpie? I used to read that so often when I was a kid. Well, I still do read it sometimes,” Winry admitted, looking at the pictures in the book admiringly.

“Uh, yeah… my nanny and skating coach read it to me and Al countless times while our dad was gone. She left that book with us when she moved to Dublith.”

“Why do you have it here, though? Don't worry, I'm not judging, just curious...”

“I guess it brings me comfort," Ed answered hesitantly. "When I see Mr. Magpie flying around the world seeing new places, meeting new friends, finding his goal, it makes me forget about my own issues for a moment. Sorry, that must sound ridiculous…”

“No, it doesn’t sound ridiculous at all!" Winry shook her head, a small smile on her face. "I understand what you mean. When I felt alone after my parents’ death I took that that book and imagined I was in Xing or Creta or Aerugo…”

“One day I will visit all those places. I’ve already seen a lot thanks to my job, but I want to see more,” Ed stated, determination in his voice.

“That sounds great.” Winry smiled. The book had made her forget what had happened earlier, but the weirdly dark look in Ed’s eyes reminded her of it again.

“I was worried that something had happened to you when I heard your scream,” she muttered.

“Really?” Ed sounded genuinely surprised and even a bit flustered for some reason.

“Of course I was! It sounded like something was hurting you,” Winry said defensively.

“It was just a dream, don’t worry about it.”

“But… are you sure you are OK now?”

Ed started getting uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to someone being so worried about him. “Yeah… Hey, you wanted to take a look at my automail, didn’t you? Can we just get to that now?” 

“Oh, of course!” Winry exclaimed, having forgotten her original reason for being in Ed’s room. Ed took his hoodie off with some hesitation, revealing a black tank top under it, and settled on a chair next to his bed.

Having seen Ed without his hockey gear the day before, Winry knew Ed was muscular, but she still couldn’t help but admire his shoulders and arms (automail included) a moment longer than necessary as she sat down next to him to get a closer look at the automail. The years of working out and playing showed, but Winry noticed a couple of other details too: on his flesh arm Ed had a small tattoo resembling a cross with a snake curled around it and on his shoulder blade he had small star tattoos. Winry wondered if Ed would mind asking about them, but she decided to keep her mouth shut since he still seemed rather tense, probably because of the nightmare he had seen.

“Winry!” Ed said impatiently, and she realized he must have noticed her staring. A slight blush rose on her face, but she tried to cover it.

“That’s a cool tattoo. " She pointed at the cross one. "I’ve always wanted one too.”

“Why don't you get one then.”

Winry tried to ignore Ed’s sudden rudeness and asked:

“Do you have any tools around? Or will I get some from my room?”

“My mechanic would kill me if I didn’t have any. They’re under the bed.” 

“Great! Let’s just… do this then." Winry found the small box and reached for the wrench. "I’m just gonna see that everything’s in good condition,” 

The room was quiet for a good while, and Winry tried to come up with something to talk about, but for some reason that seemed really difficult. She focused her attention on the port that connected the automail with Ed’s nerves and realized that she was getting more and more curious about how Ed had lost his arm. His answer earlier had been rather vague.

“Hey, Ed… I know it’s none of my business, and you don’t need to answer if you don’t want to, but… what really happened to your arm?”

To her surprise, Ed answered: “It’s a long story. One kid on my team hated my guts ever since I joined it. I don’t know, apparently his family had something against mine, particularly my father, and he was probably jealous of my playing skills. Ironically, he called himself Envy. I have no idea what his real name was. Well, we fought, more than once, but suddenly he decided fighting me wasn’t enough, so he attacked Al too. First verbally. He said some awful things about our mother. Al said I shouldn’t care, that Envy had an even worse situation than we did, but things just kept escalating…”

Ed could still see Al and Envy in front of him way too clearly. He had gone through those events in his head too many times to count. But for some reason a new thought crossed his mind: what if the same happened to Winry? That made Ed wonder what was really going on between the two of them.

"Ed, is something wrong?"

The thought of him possibly starting to like Winry made him uncomfortable. He ignored Winry’s question and suddenly jumped off his chair, telling Winry that he had just remembered that he had some place to be (which she didn’t believe) and pushing her out of his room. Nothing else was said. Winry was left to watch as Ed disappeared into the elevator.

He couldn’t let the same thing that had almost happened to Al happen again. That’s why he couldn’t let Winry any closer to him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed and Roy have a talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like in canon, I see Ed and Roy have a very father-son like relationship in this au. This chapter was a lot of fun to write! The part in italics is a flashback to when Ed was 11 and Al 10.  
> Warning: includes the story of how Ed lost his arm so that could be triggering to some.  
> Please read and review because it will literally make my day!

After leaving Winry behind, Ed didn’t know where to go. He couldn’t go back to his room; he didn’t have it in him to face Winry right now. He couldn’t go to the practice arena; this time was reserved for some other team. He couldn’t go to the cafeteria either; some of his teammates were probably still there, eating and laughing, only the upcoming game in their minds. Unfortunately, the weather was bad too, so Ed didn’t feel like taking a walk either. That’s why he decided he would go and find the nearest gym because it wasn’t likely that his teammates would be working out during their precious resting hours. Besides, the adrenaline was still rushing in him, and he wanted to get the extra energy out of his system.

Unfortunately to him, he had been wrong about being able to hide from familiar people at the gym.

“Fullmetal, what the hell do you think you are doing?” Roy Mustang stormed in when Ed was trying to lift weights with far more aggression than necessary.

“What, training? Since when is that forbidden?” the younger man asked sarcastically as he put the weights down. He swiped some sweat from his forehead, bracing himself for Roy’s lecture.

“Don’t be a smartass. I can’t stop you from hurting yourself because you’re the only one who can do that, but I sure as hell can stop you from hurting other people. Don’t play with Winry. We are professional athletes about to compete in the most important event of the sports world, and if you think you messing with her like that won’t affect both your and her performance, you are wrong.”

Ed narrowed his eyes, feeling anger build up in him.

“I still don’t understand what you are talking about. Nothing is going on between me and her!” he said rather coldly, but he reasoned if he wasn’t able to admit his feelings to himself, he wouldn’t admit them to Mustang either.

“Don’t lie to me. When you rushed away from your room – yes, I saw that – she looked so upset. When I asked her what had happened, she said you had suddenly freaked out about something, and she thought she had done something wrong.”

“Oh. Fuck. That’s not it. She didn’t…” Ed felt ashamed. Truth to be told, he had never considered Winry would blame herself for his weird behavior, but now that Roy said it… He really needed to fix this.

“Then why did you freak out?” Roy wanted to know.

“Why would I tell you?” Ed put his defensive mode back on, glaring at his captain from under his sweaty bangs.

“Because knowing you, you will just try to push this issue away, and believe it or not, I actually want to help you.”

Roy seemed sincere enough, and finally, Ed huffed in annoyance and sat up on the bench, covering his face with his hands.

“I freaked out because… I am afraid I might start liking her too much.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Roy shook his head. “How is starting to like a woman who actually manages to make you smile, based on what I’ve seen, a problem?”

“You wouldn’t understand. It’s not like…” Ed shut up when he remembered Mustang had been raised by his aunt. He had lost important people, too.

“Yes?” Roy cocked his eyebrow.

“Never mind. You don’t want to hear this.”

“No, Edward.” The younger hockey player paid attention to Roy using his full first name. He only did that when he was being serious. “I do. Please, tell me.”

“Fine.” He rubbed his forehead with his fingers to calm himself down. “Everyone I’ve c-cared about… has either disappeared from my life or been hurt because of me, and I’m not gonna let her go through the same.”

“Don’t be an idiot, Fullmetal." Roy gave him a warning glare. "What makes you think something would happen to her?”

“Because… it just would!” Ed crossed his arms on his chest defensively. “My mother got sick all of a sudden… My father just left and didn’t explain why… Sure, he’s trying to be there for Al now, but what happened in the past can’t be fixed. And Al… Al almost got killed because of me!”

“But you saved him! You might have lost your arm, but he’s still here, alive and well, isn’t he?”

“Yes, and I don’t regret what I did, but… who is to say that won’t happen again?”

“Then you’ll just have to give your leg too,” Roy joked, but Ed looked completely serious. “Listen, Ed. We can’t know what the future holds for us, but if you are afraid of loving just because shit happened in the past, you will be miserable for the rest of your life.”

“Captain Bastard, giving people advice on their love lives even though he can’t even ask one woman out.” Ed saw the irony in Roy’s advice, even though he had to admit he wasn’t wrong.

“Pffft, I could ask Hawkeye out any day, we have just decided we don’t want the media attention on us.”

“Yeaah, right.” Ed rolled his eyes, not believing Roy for a moment.

“So tell me,” Roy changed the subject quickly, “what’s really going on between you and the lovely Ms. Rockbell?”

Somehow, despite the teasing, Mustang had managed to gain Ed’s trust, and he answered with some hesitation: “I have no idea why I’m telling you this, but… if I’m honest, I don’t really know myself. It’s easy to be around her. We bicker some, but both of us seem to enjoy it. She’s a brilliant skater, but not just that, she knows a whole bunch about automail too! Why she actually came into my room today was to check up my automail…”

“Ah, the first date, Fullmetal Alchemist style: tinkering with your automail,” Roy teased, and Ed almost hit him.

“Shut up. Anyway, she’s pretty much the only person I’ve met who hasn’t freaked out about it. The only /interesting/ person," Ed added, giving Roy a pointed look when he heard the older man grunting at his statement, reminding Ed that if it wasn't for him, he wouldn't even have the automail. "She even seemed fascinated when she saw it. It felt refreshing. And I know she’d never tell my secret to anyone,” Ed continued before Roy brought that possibility up.

“Sounds like she’s got everything you need, and she even knows how to cope with your bullshit. So, what exactly made you freak out while she was in your room?”

“She… asked me about how I had lost my arm, and suddenly… I just got worried something equally bad would happen to her. It makes no sense! But I think… I think that means…”

“You’re really starting to like her,” Roy answered for him.

“But it doesn’t make any sense!" Ed repeated. "I’ve only known her for such a little while if you ignore our childhoods.”

“Sometimes… things just click.” Roy stated, and Ed looked at him funnily.

“Speaking from experience?”

“Maybe, but you will never know for sure.”

“Jerk. Uh… I’m so confused… What should I do about this?”

“I think you should kick your scrawny ass and admit that you really enjoy her company and want to spend more time to get to know her. Stop being scared of things that don’t exist. You hurt her, she at least owns an explanation.”

“Gee, thanks for being so nice,” Ed grumbled, but he knew Roy was right. He would have to go back and explain why he had freaked out.

...

 

_Al came home crying, with an ugly shiner on his cheek, sobbing something about Ed and his mother._

_“What’s wrong?” Ed immediately asked worriedly, and Al did his best to explain that Envy, a boy Ed had fought with a lot in the past, had said he knew some awful things about their parents. There was, for example, a rumor that the reason Envy’s mother had never told him about his father was because he was none other than the Elrics’ father, Van Hohenheim. Al had immediately yelled that his father would never cheat on his mother, but Envy had countered that with “Oh yeah? Then why is he not with you, making you stay with that scary nanny instead?” He had even gone as far as to claim that Trisha had cheated on Van Hohenheim first. Al obviously hadn’t accepted such lies, instead doing what the Elrics were good at: fighting. Al didn't lose his temper as easily as Ed, but this time Envy had really crossed the line. The golden haired boy had managed to beat the dark haired one, but now he had to warn Ed that his enemy was probably planning a revenge._

_Ed and Al were supposed to have a hockey practice later that day, and they were expecting Envy to appear there. Unfortunately, the boys’ coach wanted to talk to Ed about some upcoming competition before the practice, which meant Al had to face Envy on his own. This time Envy wasn’t alone, he had his six friends who ironically called themselves “seven deathly sins” with him, and they immediately approached Al when they saw him coming._

_What was being said remained in blur, but soon the boys were fighting again. Only, this time it was serious. Al managed to hold his ground thanks to the training with his nanny, but then something scary happened. Envy started taking his skates off all of a sudden, standing on the ice with only thick socks on his feet, and Al heard screaming around him. Not even Envy’s group could have predicted what he was about to do; he took one of the skates in his hands and aimed._

_Ed arrived at the rink just in time to jump between Al and Envy, blocking the hit that could have been fatal to Al._

_The next thing Ed remembered was waking up in the hospital, feeling more pain than he had ever thought was possible. He immediately wished he could pass out again. His brother had been observing him the entire time, and when Al noticed Ed had stirred, he yelled loudly and got dark looks from the nurse._

_“What happened?” Ed asked with the little strength he had. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but he would have to hear it eventually._

_“Your arm… your arm had to be amputated… Brother, they said you can’t ever play again.”_

_The roar that came out of Ed’s mouth was worse than anything Al had ever heard from his brother, and the nurse had to give him sedatives to calm him down._

...

The two men left the gym, Ed feeling more confident, having planned what he should do next. Suddenly, a woman walked past them in the corridor that led to the various gyms, wearing a tank top and yoga pants, her blonde hair shading her face. Ed felt his confidence disappear just as quickly as he had gained it, as he recognized her.

Winry.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters edited in one day! I'm trying to make up for the little break I had. Anyway, this chapter is a bit different because we are not continuing from the end of chapter 5, instead we are going back and seeing Winry's point of view of what happened after Ed left his hotel room. Some Royai hints in this chapter! Again, please, please, review because I can never emphasize its importance enough.

”I just remembered I need to be somewhere.”

Those were the last words Ed said before leaving Winry to stand alone in the corridor, entirely dumbfounded.

She knew that was the lamest excuse he could have come up with. His actions had spoken louder than words; Winry wasn't stupid, she had noticed the discomfort he was in before he left. Had she done something wrong? Had she pushed Ed too hard by asking him to tell about the incident? Those questions ran through her mind as she tried to process everything that had just happened.

“Winry?”

The girl turned around to see the dark-haired, usually smug-looking but now completely serious captain of Ed’s hockey team approach her.

“Huh?” She was still too confused to form proper sentences.

“Why are you standing there? Where did Ed go?” Roy asked.

“I… don’t know. But why are you here?” Winry tried to counter. “I thought it’s a habit of yours to take a nap at this time.”

“I had some plans but someone canceled on me…” Roy smirked like it was not a big deal. “Apparently /they/ had forgotten they have a team photo shoot today. I thought I’d go out for a little walk because I couldn’t sleep.”

“Why do I have a feeling I know who that someone is?” Winry smiled mischievously, glad to distract herself with Roy’s relationship issues instead of hers. “Why are you so mysterious about it, it’s not like you aren’t allowed to date female hockey players, right? Is she taken?”

“No, that’s not it… It’s just that our coach set us a no-dating clause for the Olympics – stupid, I know, but apparently he thinks we have more energy in the games if we don’t ‘go around sleeping with all the ladies we meet’ so I’m trying to keep a low profile…”

“What about the other players though?” Winry asked, trying to think about Maes Hughes and his Gracia instead of Ed. She and Ed weren’t even dating, they had just hung around a couple of times! “I mean, Gracia is getting married to your teammate pretty soon…”

“Somehow I have a feeling our coach doesn’t really care about them." Roy shrugged. "Besides, Ms. Hawkeye’s (Winry didn’t miss how Roy mentioned Riza’s name for the first time) grandfather is a general manager on our team and I swear he knows everything. He would immediately tell our coach.”

“Wow. Touch luck.” Winry laughed.

“You are avoiding my question though,” Roy noted. “What happened with Ed?”

“I told you, I have no idea,” she shrugged, her expression turning back to serious. “He just left.”

“He didn’t say anything?” Roy raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“No, not really… He just claimed he had some place to be. He was lying, clearly,” Winry stated sadly.

“I’m gonna go talk to him,” Roy said suddenly.

Winry hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from him. Every time she had seen Roy and Ed together, they had been making fun of, borderline insulting, each other, and she hadn’t gotten a picture that they were close. But acting this way implied Roy indeed cared about his teammate more than he let on, as if he saw himself as some kind of a father figure to Ed.

“Wait… I don’t even know where he…” but she didn’t even get to finish her sentence before Roy was already gone.

Shaking her head, Winry decided she’d go out too to get some fresh air and to sort out her thoughts. It seemed almost as if Roy knew something she didn’t…

Suddenly it occurred to her that her first performance would be in only two days and here she was, thinking about something irrelevant. It wasn’t like her to get stuck into relationship drama like this. Luckily she’d have her next practice later that evening, and she’d get to focus on things that made sense, like spins.

After returning to her room to get her warmest and most water-proof coat, she headed out. She regretted her choice to take a walk pretty soon after stepping out of the hotel, because it was snowing and winding rather harshly. It made her thankful she wasn’t a snowboarder, cross country skier, ski jumper or anyone else who had to compete outside.

At some point she found herself outside the arena in which Amestris’ hockey women practiced, wishing she had an excuse to go in. As it happened, she got one when Riza Hawkeye showed up by the door, apparently planning to get something from the team bus.

“Riza, hey!” she greeted happily.

“Hi, Winry! Why are you here on this weather?”

“I just needed to get out of the hotel for a moment… But I didn’t realize the weather was this bad.” Winry rubbed her neck awkwardly, a habit she had picked from a certain hockey player…

“Right… I hope it gets better soon, I don’t even want to think about how dangerous it would be to compete right now,” Riza noted. “Anyway, do you want to come in? We just had our team pictures taken, we are only having a short ice practice now before the afternoon break.”

“Sure, why not. My practice isn’t for several hours, Gracia’s with her fiancé right now and Rosé and Paninya are probably goofing around somewhere so it’s not like I have other places to be…”

Winry suddenly realized she hadn’t really seen her fellow figure skaters outside the practice sessions while at the Olympic venue and made a mental note to catch up with them when she got a chance. The girls were nice, but ever since Rosé and Paninya started dating, Winry felt like a third wheel in their company, ending up spending more time with Gracia. But now that the hockey players were in the same area, both of them had become distracted, something she hadn’t expected at all before the Olympics. Well, she knew Gracia’s future husband was on the team, so she wasn’t surprised about her, but she hadn’t imagined herself getting interested in anyone. Even though she had known Ed in her childhood, she didn’t understand why she was suddenly so drawn to him. Still was, despite his weird behavior, she admitted to herself.

“Hey,” Riza pulled Winry out of her thoughts as she opened the arena door for her, “have you seen Ed today? He took my headphones earlier when his own got broken, but I haven’t gotten them back yet. And I enjoy working out way more when I can listen to something while doing it.”

“Um…” Winry started awkwardly, “I might have.”

“What’s that tone?” Riza immediately noticed. “Did something happen?”

“I was supposed to… have a meeting with him, but he left early.”

“Left early?” Riza asked. She crossed her arms over her lap, urging Winry to tell more. “Why?”

Winry was relieved she wasn’t asking why she had had a meeting with him. “I wish I knew,” she repeated the same mantra she had with Roy. “I asked him about something personal, and he started to answer but suddenly freaked out about something… and just left.”

Riza seemed to think about something for a while and then answered:

“Winry, I know Ed better than you probably realize. He used to visit me with one of his teammates who often looked after him because his father was always absent.”

Winry couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Riza’s obviousness about who that teammate was but said nothing. The older woman continued:

“The men’s team works with us quite often, because hockey isn’t that big a sport in Amestris. That means I see him rather regularly, and I think he sees me as some kind of a motherly figure. He seems tough on the surface but has gone through a lot, and my guess is that whatever you were talking about triggered some bad memories in him, and he didn’t want to show you he was upset.”

“Oh. I mean, I figured it might have been something like that but hearing you confirm it makes me relieved.”

“He’s told you about his automail, right?” Riza asked. 

“Yeah. Actually, that’s kinda why I was with him today," Winry confessed. "I asked him if I could take a look at it because as you know, I want to become an automail mechanic one day. Um…” Winry decided to ask the question that was bothering her, “do you know how he got it? I probably shouldn’t ask about this, but I figured it was probably why he freaked out today.”

Riza seemed to consider her answer for a moment, observing her friend as she sat down on a bench to watch the practice. “It’s probably better if you know. I don’t know everything myself, but here’s what I know through Mr. Mustang.”

Winry smirked slightly. Now both Roy and Riza had mentioned the other one by their name without noticing it. Riza didn’t notice her reaction, instead continuing:

“Someone tried to attack his brother, and he went between them, taking a bad hit from a skate.”

“Oh my god.” The amusement on Winry’s face turned into horror and she covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s… awful… It’s pretty amazing he’s able to play after that.”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, that isn’t the only big obstacle he’s had to overcome, though,” Riza said as an afterthought, not realizing at first she was revealing too much.

“What do you mean?”

“Hawkeye!” Riza’s coach yelled suddenly, stopping Riza from answering. “We are having a practice here, it isn’t like you to just chat with other people when you should focus on hockey.”

“She’s right,” Riza sighed. “I should go. But hey, let’s talk more later.”

“You bet,” Winry agreed, smiling although she still felt a little troubled by Riza’s revelation. She watched as the older woman hit the ice and shoot the puck right in the top left corner of the goal net with accuracy that made justice to her last name.

Seeing Riza’s enthusiasm and hearing about the obstacles Ed had had to overcome to continue playing made Winry wonder why she had chosen figure skating instead of hockey. Maybe she had just found the chasing the puck part silly. Or maybe she hadn’t wanted to continue because hockey was a contact sport and hurting someone or getting hurt herself wasn’t definitely something Winry wished. Hearing what had happened to Ed made her flinch, and she couldn’t help but admire him for continuing playing despite all that. Of course figure skating had its own risks too (even more so on the mental side; Winry was constantly self-conscious about the fact that she was ‘normal sized’, whatever that meant, and busty instead of nearly anorexically thin like some of her rivals), but at least she wasn’t going to hurt anyone else when skating, spinning and jumping on her own.

Eventually Winry got bored of sitting around while the others were having “just a short practice”, which in reality meant a rather tiring looking session; the coach Armstrong didn’t go easy on her players even right before the Olympics. She waved at Riza to sign that she was off and decided she would go to do some training too; she may not have had access to the ice at the moment, but truth to be told, she hadn’t been spending as much time at gym as usual lately.

She was in the middle of her mental practice, going through her moves in her mind, when she reached the gyms the Olympic athletes used. When she realized who was coming towards her, she quickly forgot which jump she was going to go through next.

Edward.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two dumbos (well, mostly Ed) being dumb.

The two young adults just stood there awkwardly, long enough for Roy to start wanting to sort out this mess they (well, mainly Ed) had created. He bit his lip as he watched them stare at each other almost like two animals trying to decide whether to attack each other or not. Just when Roy was about to open his mouth to break the silence, Ed and Winry asked simultaneously:

“Can we talk?”

Winry laughed nervously at the awkward situation and answered first:

“That would probably be a good idea…”

“Yeah.” Ed rubbed his neck, a reaction that had already become familiar to Winry. “Mustang, could you… just go see Hawkeye or something?”

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Roy warned playfully as he turned to leave, and Ed was close to literally kicking him out of the gym.

“Is there anything you haven’t done?” he snarled at the older man.

“Oh, there’s plenty. But I’m not feeling like sharing that information with you.”

“Asshole.” Ed shook his head after Roy finally left him and Winry alone.

“But you know, I still think he cares about you… in his own way. He wouldn’t have been here otherwise.” Winry stated knowingly.

“Hmm… I dunno about that,” Ed said reluctantly, not wanting to admit Winry was probably right. In reality, he was thankful to Roy for a lot of things, most importantly for the automail he had helped him get. But it would take a lot of coaxing to make him say that out loud.

“So…” Winry finally broke the awkward silence that had fallen between them again. “Should we maybe sit down for this?”

“OK,” Ed agreed and nodded towards the bench behind them. As they sat down, he couldn’t help but notice Winry was wearing her gym clothes, which did nothing to hide her good attributes, like her toned abs and nicely shaped legs. He felt warmth spreading towards his stomach and nearly bit his tongue to stop himself from reciting the periodic table out loud in front of her. Great. This was the last thing he needed right now that he was supposed to explain her why he had acted so weirdly…

“Would you like to explain what happened back in your room?” Winry asked with a half frustrated, half worried tone. Ed winced, looking like he wanted to run away from this situation and fast, but for once he managed to control himself.

“I know you lied to me,” Winry continued. “You didn’t need to go anywhere, you just suddenly freaked out about something. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no you didn’t!” Ed quickly reassured her. “What happened… it’s complicated…”

“I don’t care how complicated it is, I want to know why you act flirty one moment and give me a cold shoulder the next.” Winry’s voice was calm, but Ed could tell she was getting frustrated.

“I… didn’t! Ugh.” Ed shifted slightly so he didn’t have to look at her. “I didn’t try to flirt with you.”

It was half the truth, he had never intended to sound flirty. Ed thanked his gods Mustang wasn’t nearby anymore because he had a lot of stories about Ed’s ‘flirty’ side, usually involving getting drunk and pretty girls he wouldn’t have looked at twice, had they passed him on the streets of Central in the middle of the day. The truth was that Ed had never been particularly interested in starting a romantic relationship with anyone… but for some reason after meeting Winry the idea of it didn't sound so weird to him anymore. She was determined and ambitious, she gave him an impression of a smart, independent, strong(willed) woman who knew what she wanted to do with her life, and she was fun and easy to talk to… And she loved automail. Besides, the looks definitely didn’t hurt. 

Ed quickly pushed that thought away.

“Listen, I’m sorry if I gave you that impression. You seem like a genuinely great person, and maybe in some other situation… But I have a lot going on in my head right now. I’m sorry,” he added quietly when he saw Winry’s hurt expression.

“That still doesn’t explain your reaction earlier,” Winry said, more of a question than a statement.

“You see, when you were in my room…” Ed started, “I could see what happened to Al when we were…”

“I heard about that incident from Riza,” Winry stopped him mid-sentence.

“Good. Then I don’t have to explain that part,” Ed sighed. “Yeah, I could see that scene in my mind again… and somehow I just knew then that this was a mistake.” He couldn't explain why exactly it made him feel that way.

“What was a mistake?” Winry asked, confused and angry.

“This. Us. Thinking that I could… I could ask you out. Off ice.” Ed’s cheeks burned fiercely as he admitted it had been his plan.

“So you were thinking about it after all,” Winry said bitterly, although one part of her was relieved and flattered to hear that he had paid attention to her after all.

“Fine, I was, and believe me, I wanted to, but… it’s hard to explain!”

“It’s OK, you don’t have to.” Even the oblivious Ed could notice her voice telling him that it was anything but OK. “If you think this is such a mistake, then it’s probably better if we don’t see each other anymore. I was going to suggest we start with a clean slate but apparently that would be too much to ask. You know what,” she quickly stood up and turned her back to him. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to use this gym anymore.”

“Winry, wait!” Ed was trying to yell after her, but she was already gone.

Great. This wasn’t what he had wanted. If she had stayed longer, he would have said he still wanted to learn to know her better as a friend, he wanted to explain her why this was so hard, hell, he almost wanted to say that he didn’t believe in fate but there had to be a reason why they had met again so unexpectedly… But none of it mattered anymore. This time he had really done it. If they happened to run into each other again, she probably wouldn’t even want to look at him.

All this while his first Olympic game was getting closer and closer. He needed to get his thoughts sorted. That’s why he decided it was time to call home.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The usual, please never forget the power of reviews! They are literally making my days.   
> And we are finally meeting Al, Rosé and Paninya!

“Winry, my dear, you seemed a bit off today. I hope you are not injured?”

Of course Winry’s know-it-all coach Garfiel had noticed that her skating wasn’t top-notch at the moment. Her axels, something Winry was generally good at, had been rushed, not reaching their usual swiftness, but more importantly, he could see from her facial expressions that she wasn’t concentrating as well as she should have.

“No, I feel perfectly fine!" Winry tried to convince him. "I was just… lost in my thoughts for a moment. Guess I’m just nervous about the first competition…”

It was an obvious lie, but Garfiel didn’t push it.

“Oh… that makes sense, my girl. We are all getting nervous by now! But remember, if something’s bothering you, you can talk to me!”

“Thanks, Garfiel.” Winry did quite like her coach, but she wasn’t up to talking about her love life with him, so she said: “Actually, if you don’t mind… I was kinda thinking about catching up with the other girls because I haven’t really seen them much lately, so I’m gonna go now… But I’ll talk to you later!”

Once Garfiel returned into his office, Winry walked into the locker room where Paninya and Rosé were already changing into dry clothes and laughing at some of their inside jokes.

“Where’s Gracia?” Winry noticed the absence of the fourth member of their figure skating team.

“She already left, apparently she had to rush somewhere.” Rosé shrugged, not knowing any more than Winry did.

For a moment Winry was worried about her friend, knowing she hadn’t been feeling her best lately. Her train of thoughts was interrupted by Paninya who was addressing her: “But how are things with you? We haven’t seen you in like… ages.”

“What are you talking about, I saw you yesterday at the practice,” Winry answered defensively, pretending to not understand what Paninya meant. They hadn’t talked off the ice since she had met Ed. Which was about a week ago.

“You know what I mean. After the practice you never stay to talk with us anymore and we haven’t even seen you at the lunch. Is something going on?”

“Um… I… met someone.” Winry said awkwardly, not really knowing how to start her story.

“That’s not what I was expecting to hear,” Paninya exclaimed, looking excited, “but wow, way to go, girl! So what’s she like? Is she beautiful? Is she a figure skater? Who is she?” 

“Well, he’s a he…” Winry answered, and Paninya put her hand on her heart dramatically as if she was shocked. 

“Rosé, she isn’t one of us! What are we gonna do about this?”

“I don’t know, Pan, but to be honest, I’m not that surprised.” Rosé shook her head.

“Guys, let me finish!” Winry stopped her friends’ playful banter. “It’s not what it sounds like. I mean… we are not romantically involved.”

“Maybe there’s hope after all,” Paninya joked, but Rosé urged Winry to go on. “So, what’s going on between you and that guy then?”

“Maybe I should start from the beginning,” Winry sighed and the other two nodded encouragingly.

“He’s a hockey player from my old hometown, and we knew each other in our childhoods. I recognized him immediately when I first saw him here, and we started talking. This probably sounds stupid, but it was almost like we had never been separated at all, it was so easy to talk to him. He seems down to earth, and his sense of humor is similar to mine… He is kinda hot tempered at least around the captain of his team, but I got a feeling that’s just the surface. Oh, and just like me, he’s already studying to get an off-ice job after retiring from hockey! And…” Winry tried to be careful about not slipping Ed’s secret, “we are both… interested in automail.”

Suddenly Winry sounded a lot more enthusiastic than earlier and her two friends gave each other a knowing look.

“No way!” Paninya exclaimed. “He sounds like a dream guy for you. So what’s the issue?”  
“I was getting to it, Pan… See, he’s also really reserved because he’s been through a lot, and… when I asked him about something personal, he freaked out about it… I saw him again yesterday and tried to figure out the issue. He only said that us seeing each other would be a mistake.”

“You said he’s been through something traumatic, right?" Rosé asked. "Maybe he’s just not ready to deal with something like dating yet? Did he seem to like you?”

“He did," Winry admitted, "but…”

“And you like him?” 

“Fine, I do, but…”

“Just give him some time… He’ll come around. I mean, it took Paninya a long, long while to convince me to go out with her after what happened with Cain…” Rosé smiled slightly thinking about Paninya's persistence.

“I don’t know, he sounds like a bit of douche to me,” Paninya interrupted and Rose gave her an angry look. ”Well, whatever you do, please don’t dwell on it during our competition. We want you to look your best in two days!”

“Pan, you are so selfish. Winry is allowed to have her off ice issues.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t want to see her do anything stupid because of a guy.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Winry reassured her friends, already feeling better after having shared her thoughts with them.

“That’s good to hear.” Rose smiled at her. “Hey, speaking of hockey players… Have I ever told you about the hockey player who pretty much saved my career?”

“No, you haven’t,” Winry said, happy about the change of topic.

“In that case, I’m gonna do that now. It happened a bit after the incident with Cain… I was in a slump and I had lost all my interest in figure skating. I didn’t have any confidence and I might have quit if I hadn’t met this guy. He was running outside Liore’s ice arena, apparently getting warmed up for a road game, when he saw me crying on a bench nearby. He came to me and asked: “why are you crying?” At first his question sounded rather rude, but I could sense some genuine worry behind them, and before I knew it, I told him my entire story. He didn’t say much, but he seemed to listen intently. When I finished my story, he just said: “you have two good legs, don’t you? Then use them. He would want that too.” At first I couldn’t believe what he had said, but he pulled his glove off – I hadn’t even noticed it until then – and I could see he had an automail hand.”

At that revelation, Winry paled, but Rose didn’t notice her reaction.

“For some reason, it made me come back to my senses, and I realized that I wasn’t the only one with issues. After that it was much easier to return to the ice, and… here I am.”

Winry already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask, but she asked it either way: “Did he ever mention his name?”

“Oh, he did! I think it was: Edward Elric.”

...

“Alphonse Elric speaking.”

“Al, hi, it’s me!” Ed said to the phone, having finally gathered the courage to call his little brother.

“Hello, brother! What gives me this honor?” Al sounded more enthusiastic when he recognized his brother's voice.

“What do you mean by that?” Ed asked rather defensively, sensing some teasing in his brother’s voice even through the phone.

"You are not exactly the most active phone user I know,” Al laughed. Usually comments like that would have annoyed Ed, but hearing Al being happy made him calm down a bit.

“Yeah, you are not wrong about that…” he admitted. “Um… I’m calling to get some advice.”

“If you are talking about hockey here, I’m pretty sure you are still the better player of the two of us.”

“No, this isn’t about hockey.”

“Oh.” Al’s mouth formed a surprised ‘o’. He had expected Ed’s head to be full of the Olympics.

“It’s about girls.”

Al burst into a loud laughter, and Ed already regretted ever saying anything to him.

“I’m… sorry… brother… that’s just quite… unexpected.” Al managed to say between his laughter.

“Oh, now I feel so much better,” Ed snarled.

“Relax, brother. You just are so focused on hockey that I was honestly wondering if you ever notice that quite many girls are shooting longing looks at you.”

“They do?” Ed’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why have I never noticed that?"

“Because you are the most oblivious person I know,” Al snorted, and Ed got a huge urge to hang up the phone. “I’m sorry, brother, you are just so much fun to tease. So tell me, why are you asking me about girls?”

“Because… as much as I hate to admit it, you are much better and way more experienced at that kind of stuff.”

“Ooh, my big brother finally admitting he’s not good at something. Hey, speaking of girls, have you seen Mei Chang there? She’s a Xingese figure skater and…”

Ed heard only half of the things Al said about Mei, but apparently he had been following her career and was a big fan. He insisted that if he managed to buy tickets to the Olympic venue, Ed would have to introduce the two of them.

“How am I gonna introduce you to someone I don’t know? She might not even speak Amestrisian,” Ed pointed out, but Al claimed he had time to figure out the details later.

“I’m sorry,” Al finally stopped his rant, “I didn’t give you a chance to explain your issue. So tell me.”

“Please don’t laugh or say anything stupid or I swear I will never tell you anything ever again,” Ed warned, and after Al had given his promise, he started: “I really messed up with one girl.”

“OK, let’s start from the beginning. Who is she and how did you meet?”

“She’s Winry Rockbell…”

“What? As in, our ex neighbor who is now a famous figure skater?”

“It’s a little bit embarrassing that you know who she is, but I didn’t when I met her. Yes, that’s her.”

“Wow, brother, I didn’t think… Oh, never mind,” Al said after remembering his promise to not make fun of Ed. “Anyway, continue, please.”

“My teammates and I went to watch a figure skating practice and met her there. She promised to give us a skating lesson because we thought it might be useful, but then we started to talk about some other stuff and things just…”

“Clicked?” Al helped his brother.

“Yeah,” Ed said, and Al could practically see him blushing fiercely and rubbing his neck at his hotel.

“What happened then? You said you messed it up?”

“Gee, thanks for reminding. But yeah, I did. We were in my room – just talking! – and I started telling her about how I got my automail.”

“You must like her a lot, I know you haven’t told that story to many people.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t manage to finish it. Something snapped in my head and I started wondering… what if something happened to her too… because of me?”

“Aand you pushed her away, didn’t you?” Al asked, now frustrated at his brother.

“I… might have… and I might also have told her that seeing her again would probably be a mistake.” Ed sighed, now able to see how stupid he had been.

“You are the worst, brother!” Al yelled so loudly Ed had to move the phone farther from his ear. While it was normal to Al to call him out when he did something stupid, he rarely got this mad. “If I was there right now, I would kick your ass.”

“I know, I know! But you know why I did it.”

“Yes, I do, and that is exactly why I am this mad at you. I know that what happened hurts but you gotta let it go. You need to learn to let people into your life again.”

“Funny, that’s what Mustang said too,” Ed said, although he felt there was nothing funny about this situation. He had messed up too many things in his past and he didn’t want to drag Winry into it too. Suddenly, a little girl’s voice echoed in his head and he felt chills spread through his spine.

“And he was right,” Al pulled him back to earth. “OK, you want my advice? Focus on your games until they are over. After that you should try to talk to her one more time. Give her a proper explanation. What happens after that… is up to you. If you’re still not comfortable with starting anything with her then… well, no one can force you. But I wish for your own sake that you’d understand you are NOT going to ruin her life just because you’re in it.”

“I…”

“Just thank me, OK?”

“Fine. Thanks Al. I’ll try to do that.”

“Now that sounds already better. Soo, I guess tomorrow’s the big day! How are you feeling about it?”

“Confident,” Ed said, grinning now that Al had changed the topic. “I’m sure we’re gonna win!”


	9. The first competitions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figure skating & hockey time! Sorry for the possible inaccuracies, I'm no expert on especially figure skating.

Winry tried to picture herself as a swan. A swan who thought she was an ugly duckling until she grew up and met other swans who opened her eyes to see what she really was and where she belonged.

Back when her parents were still alive, she had been quite a confident young lady, knowing what she wanted and where she belonged. But after their death, she felt like an outsider among her friends and schoolmates, who were mostly concerned about what kind of lipstick they should wear for the evening’s party… where Winry had not been invited. When she asked about it, one of her so-called friends stated that the organizer of the party had thought it wouldn’t be her thing. While Winry admitted that she hadn’t been wrong about that, she absolutely hated that apparently everyone thought she was made of glass, and didn’t know how to be around her. She was still the same old Winry!

Only… soon she realized that she didn’t care about the childish and superficial topics she hadn’t minded earlier. Suddenly she wasn’t sure what she wanted and where she belonged anymore. A few weeks earlier she would have given a lot for a chocolate bar. Now she would give anything to get her parents back. A few weeks earlier she had been surrounded by her friends. Now she was alone with her grandma, and those who had promised to be her friends for the rest of their lives, were drifting away from her.

Thankfully, Pinako Rockbell had noticed her granddaughter’s growing insecurities and sadness, deciding they would move to Rush Valley to get Winry a new start. There she met a girl named Paninya, who had also lost her parents, and who got Winry into the world of skating. At first Winry thought that figure skating was silly, the skates felt uncomfortable and she hated the overly short skirts, but when she realized that the sport was about much more than just showing the right moves, she found herself more and more interested. When she one day noticed that her ex neighbor, childhood friend Edward Elric was making a name for himself in the hockey world, getting praise from a lot of scouts and coaches, she decided that she would start aiming higher as well. She would show the world that she was finally the strong, graceful swan she wished to be.

“Earth’s calling Winry Rockbell!” Paninya waved her hand in front of Winry’s face, and she finally snapped out of her thoughts. “You were so lost in your thoughts that I don’t think you noticed it’s your turn next!”

“What, already?” Winry stared at her fellow figure skater with wide eyes. “Oh gosh, can I do this, Pan?”

“Yes you can!” she said and pushed Winry forward. From the loudspeakers they could already hear the announcer yell: “After a short break, Team Amestris’ Winry Rockbell will perform her short program!”

This was it. Her first performance at the Olympics.

She was grateful that the team event was first, which meant her performance alone wouldn’t decide the final results of team Amestris. The men had already performed their short programs, as had the ice dancers and pair skaters, and at the moment team Amestris was close to winning a medal, an amazing achievement considering only the northern parts of the country had snow every year.

It had also been decided Winry would only participate in the short program of the team event, and Gracia would do the free skate part. She was happy about that solution, because it meant she had a bit more time to prepare herself for the individual competition. However, that wasn’t something she was supposed to think about now, as she was given the sign to hit the ice.

She took a deep breath and tried to remember how to be a swan before the music started playing. Her dress was based on the swan-theme as well; it was white chiffon with lacy, short sleeves and a sweetheart neckline.

“C’mon, you can do this! You have done this routine a million times!” she thought to herself, but when the first notes of the song of her choice started playing, her mind went blank and all she knew was the element she was supposed to do next.

‘Layback spin? Who has ever said I could do that in front of an audience this big?! OK, here goes nothing…’

Her first spin went without issues and she believed she got a decent score for it. But wait, which element came next? Ah, the step sequence. She could do this.

For an outsider her gliding across the ice looked perfectly effortless, but her mind was a mess. She could barely remember her choreography even though it was so familiar to her, but thankfully she had managed to go this far without big point losses. But next came the jumps, she knew that much…

She earned a big applause for a successful triple lutz – triple loop combination, and felt her confidence rising. Suddenly she remembered her training session with the hockey players. How Roy had pulled an axel. How Ed had finally managed to do a somewhat clean Waltz jump. Something about remembering his fierce, golden eyes made Winry frustrated, making her feel more risky than usual. She was preparing to do a double axel, but…

When she hit the air, she decided she would do this. She would make it triple. Who cared that only a few female figure skaters before her had managed to land one in a competition. She would show everyone (and particularly that one person whom she tried hard to not think about anymore) what she was capable of. One. Two. Three. Now. LAND.

The rotation part went fine, but unfortunately her landing didn’t go as smoothly as she had hoped. Winry’s landing foot wasn’t prepared for the weight she put on it, and she nearly fell because of the impact. Luckily, she did manage to straighten herself before her failure became apparent, but the foot hurt. Somehow, she still had to find the strength to finish this routine…

She had to make the final jump easier than she had planned because of the slight pain, which costed her points, but hopefully she’d get enough points from the last spins that she wouldn’t ruin team Amestris’ chances… The injured foot felt a bit better now so she managed to complete the routine, but she had to admit that she didn’t feel like the grown up swan the slightest when she bowed to the audience. She had let her pride get the best of her, and what was worse, something might have gotten broken in her foot.

“Winry, what was that? Did you hurt yourself? I could see you avoided pressure on your right foot, was it the axel? That was a stupid risk since you haven’t practiced them!”

“Garfiel, calm down, it’s OK.” Winry winced as she started walking towards the space where she was supposed to wait for the points. “OK, maybe it’s not OK but I’m sure it’s nothing too bad… Can we just… wait for the points?”

“Fine. But I WILL take you to the hospital once this is over. No competition is worth your health.”

“OK, OK, do that,” Winry sighed and sat down on the seat meant for her, relieved to get the pressure off her foot.

Soon enough the points were announced. 77.50. Sure, that was good, but would it be good enough? She knew two other skaters before her had gotten higher points. Oh well… She would have gotten better points had she not done that triple axel and focused on the rest 100%…

Garfiel didn’t have it in him to scold Winry anymore, so once the clothes were changed and everything else taken care of at the arena, he drove Winry to the doctor’s.

 

...

 

”C’mon guys, let’s do this!” Roy exclaimed to his team as the clock on the wall showed mercilessly that it was almost time to go. “Elric, remember what we planned and we should be just fine,” he said more quietly to Ed who was playing in the same line with him.

“Of course,” he said, sounding a bit frustrated. Sure, this was so far the biggest game of his career, but it was not like they hadn’t done this before. He had no doubt they wouldn’t win.

A little bit later, a voice from the loudspeaker yelled: “And here’s the starting line-up for team Amestris! Forwards: number 10, Edward Elric, number 12, Roy Mustang, and number 16, Jean Havoc! Defense: Number 21, Maes Hughes and number 47, Heymans Breda. In the net: number 30, Alex Louis Armstrong!”

The audience gave the players polite applause as they settled for the first face-off of the game.

For the first five minutes, the teams were mostly trying to figure out the other one’s strategy. Team Drachmas’s players were big and defended well, but Amestris’ men were sure they could break that defense with their speed. Besides, Team Amestris was known for their fire power.

Soon Roy’s line hit the ice again, and together they managed to tear down Team Drachma’s defense with the formation they had practiced many times before. Drachma’s goalie couldn’t do much when Ed gave Roy the final pass, and the captain of the team shot the puck right in the top of the net. Roy’s celebration was ridiculously over the top, and Ed couldn’t help but smile widely watching it.

After the goal, Team Amestris gained a momentum, and only a couple of minutes later, the second line of Ed’s team managed to score another goal. On the other side of the rink, goalie Armstrong looked almost bored. That was when the Drachmans decided to use their time-out, and even coach Bradley, who never smiled, couldn’t help but look amused as the other team’s coach was yelling at his team fiercely.

However, Ed’s team got relaxed too soon. Team Drachma seemed to find new energy during the time-out, forcing Team Amestris to take a penalty by keeping the puck in Amestris’ defensive zone for nearly two minutes. By the end of the penalty, the players trying to stop Team Drachma from scoring a powerplay goal were exhausted, and the opponents took advantage of that, making the game 2 - 1. Not even Armstrong, ranked one of the best goalies at the tournament, managed to stop the puck in time.

After that, the atmosphere of the game changed entirely. What Drachmans might have lacked in speed, they won in strength, and not even Ed’s line was able to take the lead in puck control. Every time they tried that, they were cornered and lost the puck in the 1-on-1 situations. But what was worse, Team Drachma started using dirty tricks to keep Team Amestris in line.

The first incident occurred when Havoc was trying to take the puck to the offensive zone. One of the biggest Drachmans noticed that the referees were more focused on the wrestling match between Mustang and one of his teammates, and tripped Havoc from under his knee. In a normal situation, that would have earned the guy a long penalty, but no one noticed what was going on until it was already too late. Havoc was lying on the ice in pain, the audience whistled, and Roy was red from anger when he guessed what had happened to his teammate.

It was lucky the period ended 10 seconds after the incident. Otherwise things might have gotten even dirtier than they did.

The second period was goalless, but the heated feelings were visible as both teams played even harder, tackled harder, got a bunch of penalties and Ed nearly threw his gloves away when one Drachman chirped something about a chick he had seen Ed with. He claimed he would totally take her out once he was done with the games.

“Never! You piece of shit don’t even deserve to look at her!” Ed roared, and Mustang had to hold him that he wouldn’t punch the Drachman in the face right then and there. Although Ed was often more than willing to fight, he could never take his playing gloves off because that would reveal his automail secret, and that’s why Roy had to do his all to calm Ed down.

Ed didn’t get to fight with the Drachman, but Hughes had seen the entire scene and wanted to act. When the same man was on the ice at same time with him again, he challenged the goon to a fight, winning it.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Ed murmured when Hughes’ penalty (5 minutes) ended, but the older man said he’d always protect his teammate’s and his girl’s honor. Ed didn’t bother to correct the status of their relationship, instead remembering what he had said her the last time they had seen each other and getting frustrated at himself.

He got that frustration out of his system when he scored at the beginning of the third period. Roy had read the play marvelously, managing to steal the puck from a Drachman, and passed it to Ed who was waiting further down the neutral zone. He was way faster than the Drachman defenseman trying to block him, passing him and soon having only the goalie in front of him. Ed pretended he was gonna shoot through the hole between the goalie’s leg pads, moving the puck back and forth with his stick, but… right when the goalie moved to make the save, Ed let the puck slide over the goal line from the free space on the left of the goalie he had left when preparing to block the shot.

The Amestrisian side of the audience cheered loudly as Ed jumped against the glass and his linemates soon joined him, giving him hugs and pats on his shoulders and head.

“This is what I play hockey for,” went through his mind when he skated to fist bump those of his teammates who were waiting for their next shift on the players’ bench.

Ed’s happiness wasn’t long lived. When Roy’s line went back to ice after the goal, they were against the line involving the guy who had fought Hughes in the previous period, and they were fuming of anger. Mustang tried to tell Ed to watch his back, but it was already too late.

Ed was going after the puck that was gliding towards the corner of the rink, his back to the other players, when he suddenly felt excruciating pain in his leg and his mind went blank when his head hit the glass.

...

Winry was waiting for the results of her x-ray at the corridor of the hospital when she saw someone being rushed into the emergency room. She felt her legs go numb when she recognized the glimpse of golden hair peeking from under the covers. There was only one person she knew who had a hair like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. I'm sorry. But before you start hating me for that ending, please see what's going to happen in the upcoming chapters first.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ed and Winry finally talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting, but the reason for that will hopefully benefit all of you; I finished writing probably the most important chapter of this fic. BTW, if someone is interested, I have some drawings drawn by me and my lovely tumblr friends related to this au on my tumblr, so if you guys aren't scared of "spoilers", feel free to check them out.
> 
> And now, we'll find out what happened to Ed and Winry in the hospital. Please enjoy and remember that reviews are extra important for the progression of this story!

“Ms. Rockbell? We have the results from your x-ray.”

Winry lifted her gaze from her feet and simply nodded at the doctor, positive that this would be the end of her Olympic dream.

“I have some good news for you," the doctor spoke. "Nothing in your foot is broken. You have some strong bones, I can assure you that not many would survive a failed landing like that without broken bones. I should know, I’ve been a sport injury specialist for a long while.”

Winry interrupted the doctor before he had finished. “Oh thank goodness, so that means…!”

“However," the doctor raised his voice, "I do want you to take it easy for at least a week. The joints didn’t react well to the collision, so the foot might get sorer if you don’t give it a rest.”

“But the individual competition…” Winry grew worried again.

“It starts in a week, right? If everything goes well, you should be able to compete. However, I want you to skip the ice practices for at least 4-5 days and avoid putting any extra pressure on your foot. Compression might do. I also want to take a look at it before the competition”

The man wrapped a tourniquet around the injured foot and suddenly leaned in to whisper something on Winry’s ear:

“Don’t tell the others, but I’m really rooting for you in the individual competition. Of course as a team doctor I’m not supposed to take a side, but I knew your parents and… I can see they did a good job raising their daughter.”

“You did?" Winry asked curiously. "Hey, I’d love to ask you a couple of questions…!” 

The doctor simply shook his head and sighed sadly. “Maybe some other time. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get to my next patient.”

As he walked away, Winry felt completely puzzled. She hadn’t expected her parents to be brought up so suddenly. It still felt good to know she had people rooting for her, and for a moment she felt much lighter, knowing she could compete again.

That was only until she remembered the scene she had seen unfold in front of her only an hour ago.

...

“Ed, Ed, can you hear me?”

Figures were spinning on front of Ed, and he couldn’t make up who was where when he opened his eyes. All he knew was that everything hurt. Moving his limbs was hard. Particularly his left leg throbbed like hell. He blinked his eyes once to let the people around him know that he was conscious, but that was pretty much all he could do. Finally, he registered that it had been Roy who had asked him that question and gave him a weak thumbs up as he tried to figure out what had happened.

The surface he was laying on was really cold. The lights above him were so bright they hurt his eyes. That must have meant he was still at the hockey arena. Suddenly, he remembered some force pushing him forward harshly, causing him to crash against the boards, leg first. He didn’t remember falling, but that must have happened since he was laying there in front of all these people.

“We are gonna lift you on the stretcher now, so brace yourself.” He heard a voice say.

Ed did what ordered and soon he could feel himself being carried off the ice. He dared to open his eyes again and saw himself and his helpers approaching an ambulance, but he didn’t remember much of what happened afterwards.

Before he knew it, he was already in the hospital. The team doctor, Marcoh, was doing his best to shoo the extra hospital staff away from him because he couldn’t let them see Ed’s automail. Unfortunately, Ed’s leg and head needed a proper check-up, and since there was no way Marcoh would be allowed to handle all the machines needed in a foreign hospital, he prepared himself to bribe a couple members of the staff to be quiet about what they saw.

Once Marcoh had gotten rid of the extra staff, he proceeded to make some tests and ask Ed a few questions. His conclusion: concussion and possibly a broken leg, but thankfully it didn’t seem the hit had made a lot of damage on Ed's other body parts, and he was now able to move them quite normally. Perhaps most importantly, the automail port and the shoulder hadn’t been affected, something which Marcoh was grateful for because if something happened to it, that would mean a big and dangerous operation.

After he was done with all the possible tests he could make without the machines, Marcoh talked one of the radiographers into helping him, and they took Ed to be X-rayed. The automail arm had to be detached before that, but Ed didn’t complain since the pain in his leg was even worse than the nasty feeling in his right shoulder he felt when his nerves were disconnected from the automail.

Ed started to grow bored while waiting for Marcoh to analyse the X-ray in his room. Even without the headache caused by the crash, he wouldn’t have dared to turn on the TV because he wasn’t ready to face what would likely be shown there. The Olympics coverage would probably be full of his accident and people speculating how badly he was injured. Even he himself didn’t know that, so it was ridiculous to hear other people sound so sure when they said something like “he won’t be playing any more this season” or “he’ll be up and skating before you know it”.

Ed did have enough experience on injuries to know that he most likely wouldn’t be playing for several months. All he could do now was to wait for the results from both the tests and the game and wish for the best, and that made him feel frustrated. Just when he was about to start kicking the end of his bed with his healthy foot, at least five of his teammates entered the room, happy to see him looking relatively fine despite the accident.

“So? How did the game end?” Ed asked darkly before anyone had a chance to say anything.

“We won,” Hughes said, although his voice was lacking the usual excitement. “4-1. Havoc scored an empty-netter when the Drachmans were trying to tie the game.”

“Good,” Ed grumbled, although he felt far from good in that moment.

“We really wanted to stop playing after… that thing, but rules are rules… We did manage to get away from Bradley’s post game meeting though.”

“That’s cool guys, I’m just glad you won.”

“So, how are you feeling?” Roy asked. Ed couldn’t help but notice that for some reason he almost seemed… guilty? when he asked that.

“What do you think? In pain and pissed off.” Ed let some of his frustration out. “I can’t believe my first Olympic tournament lasted less than one game.”

“But do you know that yet for sure?”

“I may be fast at healing,” he said, thinking about his automail surgery from which he had healed in record time, “but I’m fairly sure my leg is broken and it doesn’t heal in one day.”

“I guess you have a point there…” Hughes admitted, but then a wide smirk rose on his face, as he remembered something that would distract Ed from his miserable thoughts.

“Anyway… I couldn’t help but notice there was a familiar looking young woman waiting in the corridor, looking like she wanted to see you but was too afraid to ask if she could come in…”

“Oh… who…” Ed’s brain felt a little sluggish still, but when he saw Hughes’ expression, the gears in his head started working.

“Winry? What is she doing here?”

“You can ask that from her. I’m gonna let her in.”

Before Ed could protest, Roy was already inviting to girl to join them. When she stepped in (limping slightly), she seemed very out of place, not knowing what to say in front of all these men, but finally she managed to give Ed an awkward wave.

“Hi.”

“Hi, Winry.”

“Um, how are you? I was waiting for my x-ray results when you were…”

“Huh? Did something happen to you?” Ed stopped her, looking more worried than Winry had expected.

“I hurt my foot a bit at today’s contest, but it was nothing serious… You seem far worse.”

Ed just shrugged. “I’ve been better, you’re not wrong about that… but been worse too.” That was true, this was nothing compared to the amputated arm.

“Right… Uh, this is probably not the best moment to ask this, especially considering… but I was wondering if we could maybe talk? Alone?”

Ed gave his teammates a meaningful look and they left the room. Hughes couldn’t help but give Ed a thumbs up before he disappeared.

“What?” Ed turned back to Winry, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Uh… I know things are kinda weird between us, and I know you said it would be better if we didn’t see each other again…” she started awkwardly. “To be honest, I still kinda want to throw a wrench at you when I remember our earlier conversation..."

"I guess that's fair enough," Ed noted. 

"But…" Winry said, slightly louder this time, "if you feel like changing your mind about what you said then, I’m ready to start from the beginning. You know, as friends?”

It was barely visible, but Winry thought she could see a tiny smile flash on Ed’s face before he answered.

“What made you change your mind? I said some stupid shit back then…”

“Yeah, but I talked to a couple of people…”

“About me?” Ed raised his eyebrows.

“Y-yeah, kind of… But don’t draw any conclusions!” Winry blushed fiercely when she realized the implications of what she had just said.

“So, what did you talk about?” he asked, rather cockily in Winry’s opinion.

“Well, one of them, Rosé, seemed to think that I should give you some time… and then she told me this interesting story about a hockey player who had helped her to get back onto her own feet again…”

Winry smiled playfully, happy to notice Ed had counted 1+1=2 based on his reaction. He seemed curious now.

“According to Rosé, that guy seemed a bit of a jerk at first…”

“Hey!”

“Shut up, you big baby. I said at first. Anyway, even though the guy seemed kinda rough on the edges, his words really reached her, and she understood that she couldn’t dwell on something she couldn’t change. That saved her career. And now? She’s competing with me in these Olympics.”

“She is? That’s… that’s great.”

“Yeah… I guess what I’m trying to say is that you have a bigger impact on people than you give yourself credit for. You affected even me before we met here, inspiring me to aim higher in my goal to become a figure skater. That’s probably partially why I’m here in this room now. You know, sometimes you really infuriate me, but…” her tone became softer as she continued: “when I saw you being carried into the hospital, I realized that… I want to learn to know you better. Despite all. As a friend, of course!” she added hastily when she saw Ed blushing and having difficulties sitting still.

“You never give up until you get what you want, do you?” he asked after a while.

“No, that’s not a trait of a Rockbell." Winry shook her head, her long ponytail swinging from one side to another.

“In that case… the answer to your question is: yes.”

Winry didn’t understand what he was referring to. “What?”

“You asked me if I had changed my mind… and you just convinced me. Yeah, I think we can be friends.”

“Great!” A wide smile spread on Winry’s face. “I do want us to be able to be honest to each other, though, so if something bothers you… I want to know. I will call you out if you start avoiding me again.”

“About that… There are some things that I should explain to you, but I’m not ready for that yet. I just got a concussion and missed my chance to win an Olympic medal so this is not the best situation…”

“I guess that’s fair enough… but when you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here. Um, it seems your doctor wants you to get some rest,” she pointed towards the door through which they could hear Marcoh telling Ed’s teammates to leave the hospital. “… So I suppose I should go.”

She got up from her chair and turned to leave, but before she got farther, she felt Ed take a hold of her wrist and she turned to look at him.

“Winry, thanks. For saying all those things, I guess. It will probably get pretty boring here, so I wouldn’t mind if you visited sometimes.”

“Don’t worry, I will!”

Winry gave Ed one more smile, and when she disappeared from his sight, he gave a deep sigh, and thought:

“Shit. I’m screwed.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The text in italics is a flashback to Ed's past. CW: minor character death (in the past). Please enjoy and review! This chapter was quite a tough cookie to write. Also, to my old readers: there is a new scene added to this chapter.

”Edward, I have some bad news for you,” Doctor Marcoh said with a serious tone when he came to see how Ed was doing a day after the incident. “There’s a fracture in your leg, and it needs to be operated if you want it to heal properly. The good news is that we can do it already tomorrow, and if everything goes well, you might be able to get back to ice in 2-3 months.”

“That’s… a long while,” Ed mumbled. It meant that unless his team made it to the playoffs in the national series, his season would be over.

“It might feel that way, but it’s not like your career is ending because of this,” the doctor said mercilessly.

Ed shot an angry glare at Marcoh but said nothing. It wasn’t like he hadn’t expected these news, but hearing it still hurt.

“Can I just get some damn painkillers?” he finally asked when Marcoh seemed to be expecting some kind of reaction from him.

“You’ve already had your daily dose, so I’m afraid not. Now get some rest. And don’t even think about leaving your bed!” he warned. He knew Ed wasn’t exactly the patient type so doing something like that wasn’t out of the question when it came to him.

Ed threw himself angrily back against his pillows and sighed. Apparently anything good couldn’t happen in these Olympics.

…

 

A few hours later, there was a knock on Ed’s door. He lifted his eyes from the book he was reading, and his frown changed into curiosity when he saw who was coming.

“Hi, can I come in?” Winry, whose hair was on a lazy bun and who was wearing loose college pants but somehow still managed to look cute, asked from the doorway.

“Sure. I wasn’t expecting…”

“Me to come here again so soon? I can’t do my regular training and you are stuck in here, so I thought this would be a way better way to spend my time than sulking in my room.” Winry shrugged.

“You have a point there,” Ed smirked, having a feeling she probably wasn’t quite as reluctant to meet him as her answer implied. 

“Uh, anyway.” Winry reached towards the bag she had brought with her. “I got you something.”

“You did?” Ed looked at her curiously.

“Yes, here.” She pulled a small pie out of her bag and put it on Ed’s bedside table. “I have heard the food at the hospital isn’t the best, so… I thought you’d like something to eat… I would have made it myself but I don’t have an oven in my hotel room so it would have been difficult to arrange. I found it from a nearby café. And now I feel stupid because I didn’t even ask if you prefer some flavor or have allergies or something, ugh…”

“Winry, calm down.” Ed had a hard time keeping his amusement inside him. “I’m sure it tastes great. And for future reference, I don’t have any allergies.”

“You say that like you think I’m gonna bring you more food in the future…” Winry stuck her tongue out at him playfully. 

“I sure don’t have anything against that,” Ed said cockily, but he knew Winry had enough sense of humor to understand he didn’t actually need her to do that.

“Right.” Winry rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I hope you like that apple pie. I did some taste testing and in my opinion that was the best one they had.”

“It looks good,” Ed noted and sunk a fork Winry had brought with her into the pie. “And tastes good too!” 

“I’m glad.” Winry sat down on the bed and watched as Ed devoured the pie with a good appetite. “So… did you get any news about your leg?”

“Yup. Broken as fuck.” Ed shook his head. “I won’t be playing for months. That damn doctor tried to cheer me up by saying at least it’s not so bad my career would end but it will take so long to gain the strength back! Frustrates me to even think about it.”

“I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do…”

“Just… keep me distracted. Anything.” 

“OK.” Winry noticed the book on the floor. “Hey, were you reading The Adventures of Mr. Magpie again? Do you have a favorite part?”

“I like the part in which he visits Xerxes… There’s something fascinating about that place. And the people there used to have golden hair and golden eyes like I and Al do? So weird.”

“You’re right! It is interesting. Hey, how about I read a little piece of it aloud? It’s been a while since I’ve read this book so my memories are getting a bit hazy…”

“That would be nice. I don’t think anyone has read anything to me since… never mind.” He was about to say, “since my mother died,” but he didn’t want to ruin the mood, so he just waved it off and told Winry to continue. There was something incredibly relaxing and soothing about Winry’s voice as she read, and Ed started drifting off before she was finished. She brushed his bangs from his face and smiled at him sadly. This boy had been through so much… Hopefully he’d at least be able to rest peacefully now.

________________________________________

_It was the same old dream again._

_He was inside a dark cabin in the middle of a forest, reading something, when he heard a dog barking. Alexander was usually a calm type (unless he wanted to play with him. Alexander’s favorite game was jumping on Ed and making to make him fall due to his huge size), not barking unless… unless… something was wrong with Nina._

_“Alexander? What’s the matter?!” he finally went outside to find out what had the dog so upset._

_At first Ed had a hard time tracking Alexander because its fur nearly matched the snow, but eventually he saw something moving on the ice._

_Oh no. Oh no._

_If Alexander was there, then it must have meant Nina was there too… But Ed couldn’t see Nina or her father anywhere…_

_He followed the path onto the ice and saw two ski tracks continuing further down the lake._

_Maybe he had panicked for nothing and they were still skiing somewhere… Dogs barked for weird reasons sometimes…_

_But then he saw something that truly froze his heart for a moment. There was a crack on the ice, big enough for a human to fall in, several dozen meters from him, and one of the ski tracks seemed to be going right towards it._

_Please, please, don’t let anyone be there,” Ed prayed in his mind and started approaching the crack cautiously, going into a crawling position as he got closer to the hole. His heart was beating faster than he could ever remember it doing, and he was having a hard time breathing. He closed his eyes before looking down, bracing himself for the blow.  
Even so, nothing, nothing could have prepared himself for the sight that faced him there._

_He made the hole bigger, that he’d be able to dive in, and even though he was near fainting, he managed to find what he had never, even in his worst dreams, imagined finding. He lifted the girl on the sturdier ice, and the first thing he noticed that she was ice cold. How long had she been under water? He couldn’t find a pulse, but he had practiced CPR together with his hockey team, so he was sure he could still save her… he couldn’t give up yet…_

_He carried the girl into the cabin as fast as he could and started. 30 compressions… 2 breaths… 30 compressions… 2 breaths…_

_But it was no use. After half an hour, he had no other choice but to give up. It was as if his heart had sunk with her, and he felt empty. Empty and sick, because when the information about Nina’s death finally sunk in, he ran to the nearest toilet to throw up. ___

___________________________________________ _

__

__“Ed, wake up!”_ _

__When he finally stirred, the first thing he felt was a warm hand in his. He opened his eyes and saw a figure with angelic blonde hair sitting next to him._ _

__“Great, you’re finally awake," Winry sighed of relief. "We were getting worried, it seemed the anesthesia affected you differently from usual patients… Maybe it’s the automail.”_ _

__“Uh, hi Winry,” Ed said with difficulty, not understanding half of the things she had just said thanks to his groggy head._ _

__“Did you see a nightmare again? You were screaming in your sleep.”_ _

__At first Ed wanted to deny it, but then again, what was the point? She could already see through him._ _

__“Yeah, I guess so…”_ _

__Winry had learned to not push Ed to talk anymore, so she just gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze and brushed his bangs away from his face. It was then that she noticed his cheeks were wet from tears, and her heart ached thinking about what awful things had made him react so strongly._ _

__“When you’re ready to talk… I’ll be right here.”_ _

__“Thanks. I’ll try to remember that. What are you doing here anyway??” Ed asked._ _

__“When I saw your message about the operation, I just…” she blushed fiercely, “… thought that someone should be here supporting you. Your team won again, by the way.”_ _

__Team Amestris had had an early game that day and they had won the Cretans 2-1. But next up against them would be team Xing and Ed knew they would be tough to beat, with Ling Yao as their top scorer. He couldn’t really focus on hockey at the moment, though, because his mind was still in his dream._ _

__“That’s good to hear. Uh, hey, this is probably a weird thing to ask but would you mind telling me a story? Anything about your life that comes to your mind?”_ _

__“Oh, of course!” Winry agreed immediately. She seemed to consider something for a moment and said: “I once knew a brave little boy. He was a bit brash but still had a good heart and helped those who needed it. Once a little girl’s dog had run away from home and the dog was this close…” She showed the distance with her hands. “… to getting badly hit by a car, when the boy managed to pull her away, risking his own life. She got a small hit on her paw, but if it weren’t for the boy, the dog might have died. The dog’s owner still hasn’t forgotten about the good deed the boy did. Do you have any idea whom I’m talking about?”_ _

__“I remember that… It was such a long while ago,” he said quietly. Without thinking, he added: “Unfortunately, that boy failed to save someone else, and he still blames himself for it.”_ _

__He wrapped his arms around his working leg and buried his head against them. Winry could only hold him as he relived his worst memories in his head._ _


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a hard one to write and that's why I also took a lot of time to edit it. Warning: a minor character death mentioned again. Please don't forget to comment because they literally make my days.

”Captain Bastard, what brings you here?” Ed asked immediately when Roy showed up in his hospital room. It was two days since his surgery, and since everything had gone fine, Doctor Marcoh was ready to let Ed go back to the hotel. That’s why Ed hadn’t been expecting any more visitors that day; he had let his teammates and Winry know that he’d be moved soon.

“What, can’t I visit my teammate on his birthday?”

“On my… oh.” With everything that had been going on, Ed had entirely forgotten it indeed was his 18th birthday. He hadn’t even bothered to check his phone, but he was certain at least Al – and maybe his good-for-nothing dad, not that he cared – had left him a message.

“Based on your expression, I’d say you forgot, didn’t you?”

“It’s been quite eventful few days. I really have no idea what day it is anymore,” Ed grunted. “Anyway, thanks, I guess.”

Roy dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “So, the pipsqueak isn’t quite as pipsqueak-y anymore. How does that feel?”

Ed, who had always been insecure about his height even though he was now nearly as tall as Roy, fumed with anger, but that was exactly the reaction Roy had wished for. He had noticed Ed had lost the spark in his eyes after the accident, and that’s why seeing that he still had some spunk in him made him feel relieved.

“Oh, it feels amazing, Mustang,” Ed answered snarkily. “Can’t wait to drink you under the table once I can walk again.”

“Is that a promise?” Roy smirked.

“Only if you win gold here. Otherwise I will not go into a bar with you even if you forced me,” Ed growled.

“We’ll see about that. By the way,” Mustang decided to change the topic and patted Ed’s cast. “I heard Ms. Rockbell was here again yesterday. Any progress on that front?”

“It still isn’t any of your business, and we are friends, still getting to know each other.” Bitterly, Ed added in his mind: “Besides, after what happened yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised if I drove her off for good.”

“Right, and you like milk,” Roy retorted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ed asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Nothing. Listen, I’d like to talk seriously with you for one moment. Do you think you can do that?”

“It depends,” Ed answered. “Can you?”

“Believe it or not, Fullmetal, I can. I want to know how you are really doing. I’ve noticed that you took the accident hard, but I know you well enough to know that something else has been weighting you down as well. Am I right?”

“You’re… not wrong,” Ed finally admitted. “Winry makes me so confused. I li…like her, but she also reminds me of the reason… you know, the bigger reason… why I’ve been…”

“Pushing people away?” Roy guessed correctly.

“… For the past 3 years.” Ed finished.

“I wish there was something I could say to make you understand that you are not gonna hurt her, but you need to realize it yourself. But I know one thing, and it’s that Nina would have wanted you to be happy.”

…

[flashback]

_“Big brother, big brother, look! It’s snowing!” the 4-year-old girl pointed outside excitedly, jumping up and down as she tried to get Ed’s attention._

_“I’ve told you, you don’t need to call me that. I’m Edward, not your brother. It indeed is snowing, though… Been a while since we’ve last seen it…”_

_For the past few weeks it had been really cold around Tucker’s cabin, freezing the nearby lake, but despite Nina’s wishes, it hadn’t been snowing until now. She was so eager to build snowmen and test her new skis. Ed swore that with his next pay check, he’d get her skates as well. Simply seeing the little girl’s smile was totally worth it. She had so little to smile about, with her mother gone and dad… nearly as absent as Ed’s was. He might have been in the same building, but Nina rarely saw him because he barely got out of his working space. That’s why Ed wanted to make sure that when he did have time, he spent it with Nina, so that she’d have it at least a bit better than he did._

_“Can we go and build a snowman?” Nina asked, and Ed agreed immediately._

_“Let’s make the biggest snowman ever!”_

_A little bit later, both had their snowmen ready. Ed’s indeed ended up quite big, and he decorated it with snowballs that were shaped like skulls. Nina’s was small, and when Ed asked if it was supposed to resemble someone, she answered: “It’s of course you, big brother!”_

_Nina was the only person who could have pulled that without Ed getting angry, so instead he just said: “Really? I thought I was a bit bigger? Like my snowman.”_

_“No, you’re small. But that’s OK because I like you anyway!”_

_“You are something else, I hope you know that,” Ed snorted. “Hey!” He yelled suddenly when he noticed Alexander, Nina’s dog, approaching his snowman. “Don’t ruin it!”_

_It was too late. Alexander had already run through Ed’s snowman, destroying it, and Ed seemed to be his next destination. Sure enough, before Ed could do anything to stop the dog, Alexander was already lying on him. His jump caused Ed’s face to get covered with snow, which Alexander soon licked away, and Nina laughed at the sight from the bottom of her heart._

_Despite his discomfort, Ed felt that in that moment he was happier than he had been in a long while. ___

__[end flashback]  
…_ _

__Ed only stared at his feet with a blank expression, until suddenly there was a knock on his door._ _

__“Oh, look at the time,” Roy exclaimed, taking a look at his watch. “We have a team meeting in 10 minutes, and you know Bradley, he would quite literally kill me for being late. So gotta go.”_ _

__“Will you tell the team hi from me?” Ed asked before he was out of the room._ _

__“Will do. See you. Hi there, Winry!” Roy greeted when he opened the door only to find the blonde-haired young woman behind it._ _

__“Hello, Mr. Mustang. You’re leaving already?” Winry asked politely._ _

__“Team meetings, team meetings. Have fun, you two. And Ed, for fuck’s sake, please just do it.”_ _

__“Do what?”_ _

__Ed didn’t get an answer. He didn’t miss that Roy gave Winry a weird look before leaving and narrowed his eyes suspiciously but said nothing. When he was gone, Winry turned his attention to Ed._ _

__“I… I didn’t expect you to come back today because I told you I was leaving… What’s up?” he asked._ _

__“I’m gonna go out with the girls tonight but I wanted to see how you are doing… since it’s your birthday and all.”_ _

__“How did you know that?” Ed asked, fairly sure he had never said anything about his birthday._ _

__Winry mumbled something about little birds and Ed got a pretty good idea about who those birds might be, although Winry didn’t mention their names._ _

__“So, how are you?” she asked finally._ _

__“You’re the second person to ask that within the past 10 minutes. Doing better, I guess, although my leg is really itchy, and I can’t scratch it, damn it!”_ _

__“Ugh, what a typical answer. You know that’s not what I meant.”_ _

__“It’s… getting better like I said." It required almost all of Ed's willpower to add: "Listen, about the other day… There’s something you should know. I owe you that much. Now, this is something only few people know about… and I want it to stay that way, OK?”_ _

__“OK. You have my word,” Winry reassured him._ _

__“This is not gonna be easy…” Ed sighed, his face becoming absent for a moment as he was thinking something._ _

__“That’s OK. Take your time.”_ _

__“Three years ago,” Ed started, avoiding looking at Winry, “I was having a very rough phase. Believe it or not, it was way worse than this, although I admit I would give at least a finger to be able to get up and play again right now. Yeah, to be honest, I had been moody ever since my mum’s death, but losing my arm pushed me even further down. Roy helping me to get an automail was a blessing because hockey made me feel better, but then my asshole, always absent father stepped into the picture. He said he wouldn’t continue supporting my hobby because he had heard playing with a prothesis was dangerous. I bet your ass he didn’t care about my health one bit, he only said that for selfish reasons. We got into a big fight, which eventually led to my team coach suggesting I would temporarily move to my assistant coach’s cabin until we dealt with our issues. So that’s what I did.”_ _

__Ed took a small break to gather his thoughts, and Winry asked: “What happened then?”_ _

__“The thing is: my assistant coach was a piece of shit, and if I hadn’t been there… maybe we still wouldn’t know about that. Even the thought of it makes me feel sick. But I still wasn’t able to stop bad things from happening,” he said sadly._ _

__“I’m… not following.”_ _

__“Tucker was a greedy man, not a single bit of empathy inside him,” Ed said darkly, his eyes seeming darker too as he spoke. “The problem was that he was good at hiding it. He wanted to become a head coach to one of the biggest and wealthiest hockey teams in our country. As a matter of fact, it looked like he had a good chance of getting the job, although I wonder what he had done to get so far, because from my point of view his coaching skills had always been mediocre._ _

__Ed was quiet for a while. It seemed he was feeling more and more sick as he thought about the past events._ _

__“There was just one tiny issue,” he finally continued. “He had a daughter, 4 years old. Until he could figure out what to do with her, he wouldn’t be able to accept the job offer because the job required a lot of traveling. The girl’s mother had died a couple of years earlier and Tucker had no close relatives left so there was no one to take care of her at home. Any decent person would of course put their own daughter’s wellbeing before their career, but did my asshole of an ex assistant coach do that? Hell no.”_ _

__“I’m almost afraid to ask… what did he do?”_ _

__“Like I said, this is not gonna be easy…” Ed sighed and massaged his forehead with the palm of his hand. “… But I hope it will explain at least some of my behavior. One day, right before he was supposed to get news about the new job, he said he would take Nina to ski with him, since apparently ‘they hadn’t been spending much time together lately’. I didn’t really think anything of it then; it was entirely true that he had been neglecting her pretty much the entire time I was living there, so I was happy he seemed to be fixing his mistakes… But how damn wrong I was… If I could go back in time and change one thing… I would never let her go with him.”_ _

__There were tears in his eyes now, and Winry put her hand on his shoulder as a comforting gesture._ _

__“If you don’t want to, you don’t need to tell…”_ _

__“No, I do. He’s right, Nina would want you to know.”_ _

__“He who?” Winry asked in confusion._ _

__“Doesn’t matter,” Ed tried to wave it off, not wanting to tell Winry he had been talking about her with Roy. “Anyway, an hour later, I expected them to come back, but instead I heard Alexander, the Tuckers’ dog, barking, and went to check what was wrong…” Ed’s voice was broken by anger and sadness, but still surprisingly loud as he finished: “And I-I f-found Nina… d-dead in the la-lake…”_ _

__“NO. Oh my God, Ed, I’m so sorry!” Winry leaned closer to him and hugged him tightly, trying to give him all the support she could._ _

__There was a long silence as neither knew what to say next. Eventually, Ed spoke: “S-she was such a sweet little girl, and that asshole… that asshole… just let her fall…” With the last few words, his voice sounded so dangerous that Winry nearly got scared of him._ _

__“He had planned the entire thing?” Winry asked, looking absolutely terrified._ _

__“Yeah. Apparently his solution to the job issue was to get rid of his own daughter.”_ _

__“But how was he planning to get away with letting her die?”_ _

__“He… tried to make it look like I was the one who had been with her on the lake.”_ _

__“What? How?” Winry didn’t think she could get more shocked, but apparently she was wrong._ _

__“I was studying in my room, so I hadn’t noticed he had taken my coat, hat and skis. He wasn’t wearing them anymore when he came back, but I didn’t need to be a genius to know what he had done.”_ _

__“What happened then?”_ _

__“He threatened me, but I… I beat him to a pulp before the police and the ambulance arrived. I just… I have never been that angry…”_ _

__“But you could have gotten into trouble!”_ _

__“I didn’t, though.” Ed shook his head. “He had forgotten one tiny thing; there was a security camera by his cabin, probably to warn him about unwanted guests, and one look at it told the police that I was still inside when the accident happened. And… they understood why I had gotten so enraged.”_ _

__“I… I was expecting to hear something bad but this… I can’t even imagine how you must have felt.”_ _

__“I was pretty messed up,” Ed admitted, still feeling sick remembering all that. “After a lot of coaxing, Al managed to get me to talk about it with professionals, but I still feel so damn guilty because I could have easily stopped it had I only been more observant…”_ _

__“But it’s not your fault! You couldn’t have known!” Ed remained silent, so Winry tried to change the subject. “Can I ask one question, though? What happened to Tucker?”_ _

__“The police took him in, but he was found dead a little bit after. I couldn’t care less how it happened. Karma is a bitch, though.” he said darkly._ _

__“Anyway… I wasn’t particularly good with other people even before, but after this incident, I… I have been… just like Roy said… pushing people away from my life. I’m just so fucking scared that something happens to someone I care about.”_ _

__A sudden realization hit Winry. “And that’s why you’ve been pushing me away too. Wait, does that mean… that you…” Winry’s cheeks started burning bright red and her mouth formed a huge ‘o’._ _

__She lifted her gaze from her feet and only now realized how close they were._ _

__“Yeah?” Ed asked quietly, expectantly._ _

__“Like me?”_ _

__He didn’t answer. Instead he pushed the tresses that were hiding her face aside to get a better view of her and lifted her jaw to make her eyes meet his. Even though he had just talked about his most traumatizing memory, his eyes were surprisingly clear and intense in a way that made Winry’s heart beat faster. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers briefly before his lips started seeking for hers. They got closer and closer…_ _

__But Winry’s phone started ringing right before they touched, and the couple snapped out of their daze. Winry immediately jumped up from Ed’s bed to find her purse and answered the phone._ _

__“Winry speaking. Oh hi!” she greeted, slightly out of breath even though she didn’t understand why. “I’m so glad you called, I needed to talk to you about…” her eyes met Ed’s briefly, and she added quickly: “something… Listen, can you hold on a moment? I’m in a bit of a bad place right now…”_ _

__Ed raised his eyebrow questioningly when Winry gestured him that she was gonna talk outside his room. The person calling Winry said something and even though Ed couldn’t hear the words, for some reason he had a feeling he knew this caller._ _

__After a few minutes, Winry returned into Ed’s room with a smile on her face._ _

__“Um, it turned out the girls wanted get out already and I’ve been kinda neglecting them lately, so I promised I’d join them… I’m sorry to leave this quickly, especially after what you just told me, but I’ll see you later, right?”_ _

__“Right.” Ed nodded._ _

__“One more thing…”_ _

__She walked to him and pressed her lips against his forehead briefly._ _

__“Happy birthday.”_ _

__Ed felt all his blood escaped into his head, his face red and ears humming as Winry exited the room, apparently having no idea of the effect she had on him._ _

___________________________________________ _

__Doctor Marcoh drove Ed back to his hotel a few hours later, but instead of leaving after making sure Ed got into his room, he told him to change into better clothes._ _

__“What, why?”_ _

__“Because we are going somewhere.”_ _

__Changing pants was a struggle with a cast on his leg, but finally Ed managed to do it and was ready to go._ _

__“Where are we going?” he asked when they were back in the car again. “Don’t you think I should be resting instead?” If he was honest, he was still a bit out of it after telling Winry his story, and because of what had happened afterwards, but it was not like Marcoh was giving him a choice._ _

__“You’ll see soon. And you have your wheelchair, you are gonna be just fine.”_ _

__Ed rolled his eyes in annoyance and didn’t ask anything more._ _

__Finally, they stopped in front of a restaurant. When they reached the door, Ed saw a sign “reserved for a private event” on the door._ _

__“I don’t think we can go in,” Ed noted, trying to make Marcoh turn away, but he insisted otherwise._ _

__“Actually, I think we can. This event is for you.”_ _

__He opened the door and made space for Ed to wheel in._ _

__Ed’s expression turned from annoyed to surprised when he saw all the people who were in the restaurant. His entire team and a few staff members, Riza, Gracia, Winry’s two friends, one of whom he recognized from his past, Winry herself, and…_ _

__“Al! I didn’t think you’d come here after my accident!” Ed yelled in excitement, trying to get up from his chair to hug his brother._ _

__“Brother, what makes you think I’d miss your 18th birthday?” Al wrapped his arms around Ed’s shoulders awkwardly. “When Winry here called me and told me what was happening, I booked the first flight I could find here.”_ _

__“You called him?” Ed turned towards Winry in surprise._ _

__“Roy gave me his number. I just thought… it would make you happy,” Winry smiled shyly._ _

__“You’re really something else, gearhead,” Ed said with badly hidden admiration. He would have wanted to pat her on the head, but couldn’t reach there from his chair, so he squeezed her hand instead._ _

__“Seriously, thanks, Winry.”_ _


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit, I was lazy, and am posting this exactly like it was on tumblr. Will probably come back later to check possible incoherences. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this fluff after the angst that was the previous chapter. Also, I'm living for comments, just saying.

“So, how’s everything going, brother? How’s your leg?” Al asked when he and Ed made their way into a quieter corner of the room. With the room full of Ed’s teammates and music playing loudly, it was hard to hear your own thoughts, but the brothers decided to at least try since they had a lot of catching up to do.

“I wish I could already get rid of the cast, but other than that, it’s fine. I just want to skate already.”

“I’m sorry, brother,” Al said with genuine sympathy. “Hey, I brought something to cheer you up.”

Al handed Ed a gift bag and he took it curiously. Inside it was a book that Ed recognized as one he had wanted for a long while, Advanced Biochemistry, but much to Ed’s surprise, it wasn’t the only gift. There was something between the book. Two small, thin foliage packages that must have had…

“Al!” Ed yelled with a red face. “How the fuck did you… why… what the hell is this supposed to mean?!”

“Thought you’d need some extra protection with the way your love life has been progressing…” Al chuckled. “I know you well enough to know that you’d never have the guts to get them by yourself.”

“Oh my God. I can’t believe you. We aren’t even dating!”

“It’s funny you say that when you both are practically undressing each other with your eyes every time you look at each other.” Al pointed out, nodding towards Winry significantly.

“I’m not… Fine, she’s hot,” Ed said through his teeth, “but surely I’m not the only the only one who’s noticed that! Just look at Havoc trying to tell her jokes…”

“She doesn’t look too impressed,” Al noted. “Oh, look at that, she’s coming here. Hi there, Winry!”

“Hi guys.” She turned to Ed and noted his mortified expression. “Why are you so red? You sure you don’t have a fever or something?”

Ed didn’t have time to answer when Roy started speaking into the mic and everyone turned their attention to him.

“So, as you all know, we have all gathered here to celebrate the 18th birthday of our very own Fullmetal Forward, Edward Elric. Congrats, kid! Now that you’re officially allowed to buy alcohol, don’t forget the promise you made me!”

“Hah, you haven’t won anything yet!” was Ed’s immediate response, and everyone burst out laughing.

“Anyway, I suggest we sing for the birthday boy," Roy announced and Ed rolled his eyes. "Everyone, on the count of three. One, two, three.”

Roy gave his sign, and the choir of more and less talented singers started: “Happy biiirthday too you, happy biiirthday too you…”

Ed felt a bit overwhelmed when a room full of people sang for him but waved his thanks when they finished. Soon Roy continued speaking to the crowd:

“Before we let Fullmetal give us, without a doubt, an amazing speech, there are a couple of other people in this room as well we should congratulate. The little birds have sung me that in less than a year this team will have a brand new member. Congrats, Maes and Gracia! Your kid will without a doubt become an amazing skater.”

Nearby, Maes started rambling about the greatness of his future wife to anyone who was willing to listen, but Winry barely noticed because she squealed happily at the news and rushed to hug Gracia who had been approaching the trio.

“A baby! That’s absolutely wonderful! I’m so happy for you guys!”

“Aw, thanks Winry-dear. I got the confirmation from my doctor about an hour after the free skate. I’m gonna have to discuss this with him and Maes, but with this piece of news, I think I might skip the individual competition.”

“But you would have done amazingly…” Winry said, upset for her friend.

“Maybe, but I’ve seen you skating and I dare to say you would beat me 9 times out of 10 these days. And I already won gold 4 years ago, so really, I’m not too upset. How could I be when I look at him?”

Gracia turned to see her fiancé flailing as he told Riza, the only person patient enough to listen to him ramble for ages, about how he would decorate the baby’s room and how he secretly (or not so secretly) wished the baby was a girl.

Ed hadn’t had a chance to say anything while the women were chattering, but now he decided it was his turn to get himself heard.

“Congrats, Gracia! I’m sure you’re gonna be a great mother, but I’m a bit worried about your fiancé. I bet he’s that person whose locker will be 100% covered with photos of the kid and he’ll forget how to skate when he keeps staring at them.”

“Don’t worry, I will make sure to kick his butt if he starts slacking off because of it.” Gracia smirked.

“That’s good to hear. But seriously, I’m happy for you guys. Babies are amazing!”

“Thank you. I think someone’s gonna be one lucky lady to be a mother to your kids in the future, Edward.” Ed wondered if it was just him or did Gracia glance at Winry one second longer than necessary when she said that. And did she emphasize the word someone? He felt himself getting flustered for the second time within minutes and he was about to turn away when Winry asked, pointing to the pack still in Ed’s hand:

“Did you get a present from Al? What did he give you?”

“J-just a biochem book…” he stuttered and left before she could ask more questions. Damn Al. He’d show him. Speaking of the devil, Ed noticed his little brother was snickering almost uncontrollably nearby after seeing the scene between Ed and Winry unfold.

“Are you trying to kill me?” the older brother growled and punched Al on the shoulder when he got close enough.

“Relax, bro, it was just a joke! I won’t change my mind about you two though, I have never seen you this flustered over a girl before. It’s adorable. Anyway, I didn’t have a chance to ask you earlier, so did you tell her? About Nina?”

“Yeah, I did. I hate to admit it, but you were right. I do feel better now. And things… are going quite nicely.” He turned his head towards the spot where Winry chatted with her friends (Paninya and Rose had joined her and Gracia now). Winry gave him a small smile when she noticed him looking.

“That’s great to hear,” Al interrupted Ed from his thoughts. “Hey, I heard Mustang saying something about a speech, so how about it?”

“Do I have a choice?” Ed sighed and wheeled to where the captain of his team was clearly waiting for him. Taking the mic from his hand, he started: 

“It’s so weird to see so many of you here! To be honest, if it weren’t for a couple of friends, I wouldn’t even have remembered what day it is. And the worst part is that I’m not even allowed to drink because of my condition!”

Many of Ed’s teammates laughed. They knew Ed had never particularly cared about drinking.

“I’m not one for long speeches, so I guess thank you everyone for coming, and special thanks to that one gearhead who made this happen.” His gaze met Winry’s for a moment, and he thought he could see her blushing slightly. “Now, let’s have some fun! But not too fun…” His gaze stopped at Havoc this time. “… because some of you have a big game tomorrow!”

The guests chuckled and continued their partying. Mustang was now dancing with Riza, Havoc was having a drinking contest with Breda despite Ed’s warning, Armstrong was wiping his tears into a huge tissue, Paninya was trying to sneak a small bottle from Roy’s back pocket and Al was probably telling Winry some embarrassing stories about Ed. For some reason, all of that made Ed feel calmer than he had felt in a long while.

 

 

Later that evening, Winry was sitting alone on the balcony, enjoying the fresh, cool air when Ed appeared behind her.

“Hi.”

“Hi. Why are you sitting here alone?”

“I guess I just wanted a moment to hear my thoughts. No offense, but you hockey players are loud.”

“You’re not wrong about that.” Ed rubbed the back of his head. “But your friends are kinda interesting bunch as well. You should have seen Havoc’s expression when that Paninya chick made a show of kissing Rosé right in front of him. It was almost as if his hopes and dreams had both been shattered into pieces and fulfilled at the same time.”

“Oh, that definitely sounds like a Pan thing to do,” Winry laughed. “They’re great though. After losing my parents they’ve become like a new family to me. I guess you could say the same about your team.”

“I guess…”

“You said you have tried to push people out of your life, but you know, one way or another, you have affected all of them,” she gestured towards the full room. “They all care about you. And for some weird reason, so do I. No matter what you might think, you don’t have to carry your weight alone.

“Yeah…”

“I guess what I really wanted to tell you after our earlier conversation is that if you think you’re the only person in this world who’s feeling guilty about something, I have some news for you. For so many weeks, I kept thinking that things would be so different if I had simply told my parents to not go into that car. You know, that car in which they... Finally, my granny wrenched some sense into me and told me that I can’t change my past, but I can chance how it affects my future. It didn’t sink into me right away, but I understand what she meant now. I’m not saying that I’m never thinking about it anymore, because that’s a lie, but I know my parents would want me to live my life, so that’s what I’m doing. And that’s what you should do as well.”

Ed stared at her with surprise. He realized Winry’s words were very similar to the ones he had used when confronting Rosé, but he wasn’t living by his own advice.

“I probably deserved that.”

“Yes, you did.” Her tone got softer when she continued: “By the way, I want you to know that I’m not going anywhere. We are way past that point now.”

For some reason, Winry’s statement made Ed remember the realities of their situation, and he asked: “How are we gonna stay in touch after the Olympics, though? We are both busy with our sports, traveling on different sides of the country and sometimes even out of country.”  
“Phones exist, Elric. If you know how to use one. And it’s not like I’m always gone, there are off-seasons, breaks, and so on… And to be honest, at the moment I can’t say how long I’m gonna continue my skating career. I’m kinda itching to move onto mechanics soon enough.

“Sounds like you have already given a lot of thought to your future.”

“Guess so. What about you, though? Do you have any plans?”

“I want to continue playing as long as I can and study as much as I can. I might have some other wishes as well, but… maybe one day I'll tell you.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.”

Ed leaned his head against hers and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulder. They stayed like that for a good while, until the tender moment was interrupted by a crash inside the restaurant.

“What was that?” Winry asked worriedly.

Ed just sighed. “I think it’s time to take Havoc back to the hotel.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, ch 14! I'm sorry this took so long, but holidays happened, and also, I had a lot of issues with this chapter as I realized there were some inconsistencies in the original version... Hopefully this version is better now. Please enjoy and review :) The next chapter should come sooner *fingers crossed*

“Thanks, Winry.” Ed said suddenly as the two of them were walking back towards their hotel after the party. He had insisted he wanted to use his crutches because he was getting tired of sitting around, so his teammates had brought them for him sometime during the night. The rest of the gang had either left to sleep earlier or to continue their night elsewhere, so that left Ed and Winry alone. Even Al had mysteriously disappeared before they had a chance to ask if he wanted to walk with them.

“For what?” Winry asked, confused.

“I don’t know. For tonight? For sticking with me? Not letting me be an asshole?” Ed said sheepishly.

“Pfft, I can’t take credit for all that.” Winry dismissed it with a wave of her hand.

“I think you can. I wish there was a way to repay it for you.”

“For now, I think a hug would do." Winry smiled and automatically took a step closer to him. The hug was a bit awkward, as Ed had to stand on his one leg, not able to use his crutches as support, but they didn't mind.

Again, their sweet moment was interrupted. This time some guys Ed didn’t know started whistling in the nearby smoking spot when they saw the couple. Winry recognized them as the bobsleigh guys she had seen earlier at the Olympics and was about to mention it to Ed when one of them spoke with a slurry voice.

“Hey look, isn’t that the Rockbell girl we met earlier? She went out with that runt? The bitch’s got a bad taste.”

“So you think me hanging out with someone who respects me instead of someone who drunk calls me a bitch is ‘bad taste’?” Winry asked calmly, scowling and pushing her ponytail behind her back. "I still remember our last encounter, you know."

“Winry!” Ed felt he shouldn’t have been surprised Winry was perfectly capable of standing up for herself, but he still hadn’t expected her to be that brave. Almost too brave. 

"You are lucky because if it weren't for that limpy guy, we would teach you to not disrespect us,” one of the guys yelled.

“Ex-fucking-cuse me?” Ed couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer. “Do I need to beat the shit out of you?” He growled and bared his teeth like a wolf that was ready to attack. Winry hadn’t seen this side of him earlier, and she got slightly scared of what might happen.

“Ed, it’s not worth it! They’re just jealous. You’re in no condition to fight anyway!”

“Unfortunately, you’re right,” Ed sighed, but waved his crutch threateningly at the men. “You assholes can be happy that I’m using crutches because otherwise you’d be seeing stars… She is worth about a million of you, and I’m not afraid to fight all of you if I ever hear any of you say anything disrespectful about her again. I mean it.” He stretched his arm muscles and flashed a bit of his automail from under the glove he was always wearing, making sure his statement was effective.

“Now come on, Win. Let’s go.”

“But Ed…” she said when they were far enough that the guys couldn’t hear them anymore, “aren’t you worried they’ll say something about your automail?”

“I know the type of people those guys are, and they are way too coward to actually fight back. Besides, they only got a glimpse of it, they have no proof of anything. It might just as well have been a watch or something.”

“I have to admit, though, what you said about me was very sweet. Thank you.” Winry rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment.

“That was nothing,” Ed rubbed the back of his neck again.

“Don’t be so humble,” Winry said and squeezed Ed’s hand, the real one, before they continued their walk.

"Are you... are you OK, by the way?" he asked, trying to cover his worry.

"Of course I am." Winry nodded. "I'm not scared of them."

"I'm glad."

The two of them soon changed the topic, casually chatting as they walked towards the hotel, about the events of the night, how Winry had gotten everyone’s numbers (Roy had been a big help), how Winry knew the bobsleigh guys… For a while, they forgot where they were and simply enjoyed the moment. That was, until Ed asked an innocent question.

“So, individual competition soon? Are you nervous?”

“I… I don’t know. I haven’t really been thinking about it much for the past two days,” Winry admitted. It was true, she really hadn’t paid much attention to anything that was happening in the figure skating world after her incident. Garfiel would probably be angry when she’d finally show up at the training arena. In her defense, though, there wasn’t much she could do, with her foot still a bit tender.

“How’s your foot? You will be able to compete, right?” Ed asked.

“Um, I think so…” Winry shrugged. “It still feels a bit weird when I walk but the doctor says it isn’t badly injured. Just needs some rest.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Yeah… I just wish I could practice. I don’t know how you can handle not being able to play. My problem is much smaller, but it’s still frustrating.”

“Trust me, I’m about to explode any minute now. That’s how much I hate this situation. But I’m lucky to have some awesome friends who have helped me to distract myself.” He gave her a toothy grin.

“Oh? That’s nice to hear.” Winry smirked happily, having a feeling that she was included in those “awesome friends”.

Soon the duo found themselves inside their hotel and started to make their way to their respective rooms. Winry’s was farther down the hallway so she stopped in front of Ed’s to tell him good night, but when he opened the door, something weird happened. 

"What the fu... Havoc! What are you doing?!" Ed roared as he registered the view in front of him. Jean Havoc was hovering over a dark haired woman in his bed, most of their clothes out of the way and only a sheet covering them. Quickly, Ed turned away and even covered his eyes with his hand so he wouldn't have to see any more than he already had. 

"What a stupid question, Elric, I think you can see what 'm doin'," Havoc slurred. "My girlfriend just arrived here so if you excuse us, we are gonna have some fun now."

"But this is my room too! You can't just kick me out..."

"I think I can," Havoc got up (thankfully, still his boxers still on him) and closed the door in front of Ed's nose. 

"Hey, I have a broken leg! I need to be able to rest somewhere! You bet that asshole is going to pay for this one day," he finally turned to Winry, eyes still burning of anger.

“I'd like to see that," Winry snorted, seeing the funny side of this situation. "Anyway, you can’t sleep in the hallway either, so…”

“Yeah? Do you have something in your mind?” Ed asked curiously. Anything was better than the hallway.

“Please don’t get this wrong way…” Winry said, feeling slightly awkward. “Gracia and I share a room, but she hasn’t stayed there for a single night because Maes has a big bed and no roommates, so… I guess there’s some space in mine… I mean my room! Not bed! Ugh please stop me from babbling more!”

“I say this a lot, but you really are something else.” Ed smirked and raised Winry’s chin to meet her eyes. His golden gaze was enough to make her get quiet. For a while she thought he’d kiss her, but then he suddenly turned on his heels and started to hop towards Winry’s room on his crutches.

“What? You coming?” he asked when Winry just stood there, puzzled.

“You sure you are OK with this? I mean… I know things between us have been a bit weird and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable…” she asked.

“Didn’t you just say there are two beds in your room?” Ed rolled his eyes. “It’s not really that weird…”

Winry was a bit confused by Ed’s sudden change of demeanor. One moment he was pushing her away, the next he was already willing to share a room with her. Maybe… maybe this meant she had finally managed to make a crack into his hard shell. That’s what she wished, anyway.

“R-right. Let’s go in then!”

When inside, Winry showed Ed which bed was his and quickly pushed some of her underwear peeking from her bag out of sight (this situation was awkward enough as it was, in her opinion). After that she told Ed she was feeling kinda gross after a long day out, so she would take a quick shower before bed. Grabbing her towel and pajamas, she left Ed alone with his thoughts.

He soon regretted his choice to stay in Winry’s room, because as soon as the water started running in the small bathroom, his thoughts started to go to the wrong direction. That was Winry in there, wet and very much naked so close to him, with only a thin wall between them. 

‘Stop it, Elric, you have absolutely no right to think of her that way,’ he ordered himself in his mind. ‘She deserves to be respected, not treated like I have treated her during the entire time we’ve been together here.’

Pictures of water dropping into places he should absolutely not be thinking about filled his mind, and he tried to think of anything that might cool him down. Roy being gross in the locker room. Armstrong flexing his muscles in every possible situation. Periodic table. Perfect. That seemed to work.

He had come to accept that he liked her, more than at a friendly level, but the next part was the truly tricky one: what to do about it? He would have to tell her how he felt sooner rather than later, he knew that much, but this was still too soon. Besides, Al had been right; she had the biggest competition of her entire life coming, which meant he really shouldn’t mess with her more than he already had. It just got harder and harder every moment to keep everything inside him; they had been so close to kissing already, and once that happened… it would be impossible to deny that something was going on between them (obviously something was going on, but in Ed’s opinion, they hadn’t quite crossed that invisible line between friends and lovers yet.)

Ed’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the opening door. Winry had thrown her towel around her shoulders, wearing a satin top and shorts that were short enough to make Ed’s mouth drop. He shook his head and tried to focus on her face instead when he realized she had asked something.

“Is… everything OK? Is your leg hurting or something? You look kinda weird.”

“Huh, yeah, it’s OK. Not hurting,” Ed stammered.

“That’s good. I was getting a bit worried.” Winry said, totally oblivious to the effect she had on him. “Hey, would you mind if I call it a day? It’s been quite a long one and Garfiel is expecting me to be at the meeting tomorrow morning, so… “

“Yeah, I am pretty exhausted myself…” Ed agreed and started taking his hoodie and jeans off (Winry helping him a bit with the injured leg), leaving him with his T-shirt and boxers. Then he laid down on his bed, pulling the covers on him.

Winry hung her towel on a chair and did the same. She was already nearly asleep when she heard Ed mumbling ‘good night’ from the bed next to hers.

“Sleep tight,” Winry murmured and passed out soon after.

Ed didn’t sleep tight, though. A lot of thoughts were running through his head, most of them making him confused. He had sworn after the Nina incident that he would never let anyone get too close to him again, but then this girl had just suddenly skated into his life and crushed the wall he had spent building for so many years. He wished he could talk with someone to clear his mind, but he already knew what Roy and Al would say, and his father wasn't exactly the first person he'd want to talk with... A brief flash of anger surged through him when he thought about his old man, but a look towards the blonde haired girl sleeping on the bed next to his helped to calm him down a bit.

Probably two hours into rolling around in his bed with no sleep in sight, Ed heard Winry mumbling in her sleep.

“Ed…”

She was seeing a dream of him! Once again Ed’s thoughts started running too wildly, wondering what exactly happened in that dream of hers, but then he heard her say something else.

“Mum… dad… no!”

OK, definitely not the kind of dream he had first thought of, he realized quickly. Winry’s movements got more restless, and something that sounded awfully like sobs and whimpers could be heard from her bed.

“Winry? Are you awake?”

No response.

She was quiet for a while, and Ed was about to pull his covers back on and try to get some sleep when she started making noises again.

“No! Don’t go there!”

“Don’t go where?” Ed sat up again and reached for his crutches, so he could try to get Winry to wake up.

“Winry?” He sat down on the edge of her bed and tried to shake her shoulders. At first gently, then a little bit harder. Without a warning, a fist shot up and hit Ed on the shoulder. Luckily, the hit wasn’t strong enough to throw Ed off the bed, but it made him gasp her name loudly, finally waking her up.

“What are you… Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Winry exclaimed when she registered what must have happened. Her knuckles were throbbing for hitting the automail port and Ed was still rubbing his shoulder, looking slightly… surprised? Frightened?

“I swear I didn’t mean to do that!” she hurried to add and gave him the most apologetic look she could manage.

“I know you didn’t, you were asleep…” Ed tried to calm her down, but that didn’t work.

“That doesn’t excuse it… Are you OK?”

“I think I can handle a hit to my metal shoulder… it’s you I’m worried about.”

“Why?” She had hit him. Shouldn’t he hate her or something?

“You were screaming and thrashing around a lot before you woke up. I tried to get you to wake up for a good while," Ed answered, concern on his face visible. 

“Oh… Seriously, sorry, Ed, I didn’t…”

“Would you stop apologizing already? If you think I’m scared of you… well, I might be, but not for the reason you think I am.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let's talk about something else,” Ed said quickly. “This… isn’t the right moment. Hey, are you crying?”

“I’m sorry, I guess I just got overwhelmed…” Winry managed to say between her sobs. “Not just about what just happened… This entire time I’ve been here has been quite an emotional rollercoaster… I guess I really am quite nervous about the competition, especially because I can’t practice at all… And I’m really missing my parents. I just saw a nightmare about them… and you.”

There was a time when Ed would have rather run away from a situation like this than faced it, and if he was honest, he still itched to do that, but his conscience started talking with Al’s voice and told him he needed to be there for his friend. How ironic, he thought, that his little brother had become his voice of reason. The Al in him pushed him to ask her about the dream, so he did:

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Winry was quiet for a while before answering: “I guess I’ve never told you the full story about my parents… I was 10 when it happened. As you probably remember, my parents were doctors, getting me interested in automail mechanics as well. One day there was a big accident on the road near Resembool, a truck crashed on a bus and a lot of people were injured. My parents, who were at home when the accident happened, were called into the hospital because they really needed all the extra hands they could get, and they of course were immediately ready to leave. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I had a very bad feeling when I watched them get into their car. And it turned out my instinct was r-right.”

She threw her arms over his shoulders when she leaned to sob against his t-shirt. She hadn’t let herself think about parents in a long while, so now the bottled emotions all seemed to come out at once.

“T-they d-died on a car crash on their way to the h-hospital. A d-drunk driver had driven to the wrong side of the road… and you c-can probably g-guess the rest…”

“Yeah,” he simply said, wrapping his arms around her and rubbing her back with his real hand soothingly.

“This is going to sound really weird, but… in my dream… you were with them in that car…”

Ed didn’t know what possessed him to say: “That doesn’t sound weird at all… Remember when you were in my room to see my automail and I just left suddenly? I… had a bit similar vision. I mean, I suddenly started worrying... about something bad happening to you.”

That made Winry stop sobbing and she raised her head from Ed’s shoulder to see him better.

"Really?”

“Yeah… that’s why I freaked out so much. I realized it meant… never mind," he stopped before he'd say something he'd regret.

Instead of trying to tiptoe around the topic, Winry asked directly: “Ed? What the hell is going on between the two of us?”

“I really don’t know,” Ed answered. “I’m a mess and you’re a mess and it would probably be better if we stayed as friends, but still... something is going on. I’m just not sure if I’m ready to start anything yet… but that’s something I need to figure out,” he said with determination, giving her the hope she needed.

“Thanks for your honesty,” Winry said quietly and pulled Ed with her onto her bed carefully, mindful about his leg, so that they were laying on their sides, facing each other.

“Hey, cheer up.” Ed wiped some of her tears away with his fingers. “I hate to see you crying. The only tears I want to see from you are tears of joy.”

"OK." Winry gave him a weak smile. 

He inhaled deeply, trying to get some courage, and finally added: “Listen, I’m sorry I can’t promise you this could be anything more than friendship… But know that I won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Some damn persistent woman has finally managed to convince me.”

He was grateful she had buried her face against his t-shirt again because his face was rather red when he said that.

“I’m glad,” she said, wrapping her arms tightly around his torso. "Hey, do you... think it would be OK if we stayed like this for a moment?"

"I... guess so," Ed replied. He kept brushing her hair with his fingers, weirdly fixated with it, and soon he heard Winry's breathing getting calmer, telling him she had fallen asleep. That soothed him too, and he fell asleep before he got a chance to return to his bed. No more nightmares were seen on that night.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit faster update this time!

The locker room was suddenly empty. Ed could have sworn his teammates had been there a moment ago, but now they were nowhere to be seen; not even Mustang, who was always the last to go, being the life of the room. Before he had time to start looking for them, though, Ed heard a door opening and saw a familiar blonde-haired young woman approaching him. She was wearing her usual outfit, jeans and a white hoodie with Amestris’ logo on it, and her hair was in its usual ponytail. Something still seemed different.

Winry was smiling in a way Ed didn’t remember seeing earlier. Warmth rushed all the way to his crotch when he wondered what it might mean, and he tried to quickly focus on something else, failing badly. How hadn’t he noticed earlier that she had the cutest lips, pink and soft looking, demanding to be kissed? And her eyes sparkled like two sapphires?

“Hi,” she greeted him a bit shyly, stopping in front of his locker.

“Hi. What are you doing here? I thought no outsiders were allowed inside?” Ed asked, still a bit distracted by his earlier thoughts.

“I don’t know about that.” She shrugged. “But I know no one was there to keep watch. As for why I’m here… I guess I just wanted to see you.” She blushed cutely and Ed had to resist the urge to kiss her then and there.

Suddenly the girl took the jersey Ed had left lying on the bench and put it on her.

“What do you think? Doesn’t it suit me?” she spun around in it and made a graceful curtsy when she stopped, reminding Ed of the move she had done when he first saw her at the Olympic venue.

“It… looks nice.” Ed resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward.

“Thank you.” Winry smiled brightly and bowed down to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “You look so cute when you blush.”

She poked his nose lightly and moved her mouth close to his ear, so she could whisper:

“Would you like to know what I look like when I wear nothing but this?”

“Winry!” Ed yelped in shock. Since when had she been so straightforward? They weren’t even dating, why did she suddenly act like that? He would have been lying, though, had he claimed a part of him didn’t enjoy this side of her.

“I… I think I wouldn’t mind that,” he added quietly when she kept staring at him, looking slightly disappointed. Her expression brightened, and she told him to wait for a moment before disappearing from his view…

But he never got to know what for, because a voice woke him up.

 

...

 

”Morning, sunshine.”

Ed slowly opened his eyes when he heard a female voice talking next to him. His heart rate suddenly jumped from 70 to 150 when he registered that he was sharing a bed with a woman. And not just any woman… the same woman who had just been very cute in his dream. He tried to remember if they had done anything other than talking and sighed of relief when he realized he still had his T-shirt and boxers on. Good. They probably hadn’t done anything. He couldn’t let himself get that out of control, although he had to admit it was getting harder and harder to deny he was damn attracted to her. His dreams were getting quite intense as well, and he hated himself for it.

“Morning, gearhead,” he answered, rubbing his eyes before getting a better look at the person next to him. She was sitting on the other side of the bed, already wearing her day clothes (the very same hoodie and jeans as in the dream), ready to go to that meeting of hers she had mentioned the day before.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked nonchalantly while brushing her shining blonde hair. “I thought I’d wake you up before I leave but it turned out to be harder than I thought.”

“Yeah, I did… Actually, I don’t remember…”

“Remember what?”

Ed hesitated before answering, blushing slightly. “When was the last time I slept so well… I usually wake several times a night.”

“Oh. Well, I slept pretty well myself.” She didn’t add she had been even more reluctant than usual to get up when it was way more comfortable to rest there in his warmth, listening to his heartbeat and soft snores. Sure, her shoulder had been sore from sleeping in such position, but who cared? It had felt right, and she would be lying if she claimed she wouldn’t want to repeat this in the future.

The thought ‘you never know what might happen to you tomorrow’ had crossed her mind too many times after her parents’ accident, but waking up next to Ed, she realized she wasn’t scared of it anymore. She was looking forward to finding out more about this mysterious man and spending more time with him. She only hoped he wouldn’t freak out if she admitted it out loud.

There was an awkward silence, neither knowing what to say next. They knew they should talk about last night, about how this would affect their relationship… but it was so hard to bring up.

“So, I’ll probably be gone for a few hours, but would you like to get some lunch later today?” Winry finally asked.

“Al said he wants to hang out with me today, but you can of course join us later on if you don’t mind. We’re also gonna go to the game this evening.”

“Of course I don’t, he seems great! By the way, he told me some awesome stories about you yesterday.” Winry winked, letting Ed know exactly what kind of stories those were.

“That asshole! He’s gonna get his ass kicked today, you can trust me on that.”

“How do you plan to do that with a broken leg?” She asked innocently.

“Oh, ha, ha, are you taunting an injured man?”

“What if I am?”

Winry climbed on the bed and pushed him back onto the mattress, sitting on his lap dangerously close to the area Ed was trying to avoid her seeing (a result of the dream he still hadn’t gotten in control).

“You are playing dangerous games, woman,” Ed growled, pretending to be annoyed.

“You think so?”

“Mhhhm”

“Let's play then!” she exclaimed and “attacked” Ed with her fingers. However, he wouldn’t have been Edward Elric if he hadn’t fought back as well as he could his hands finding her sides. Both of them tried to tickle the other, squirming and laughing until they finally got tired of the game. Winry rested her head against the crook of Ed’s neck for a moment, taking in the earthy scent. For some reason it felt very comforting, she admitted in her mind. Ed stroke her hair absentmindedly, smiling softly at the girl despite still feeling slightly uncomfortable. Just as Winry was rising for her spot, they heard the lock of the door making a ‘click’ sound.

“Winry, are you here?”

Gracia Goode wasn’t prepared to see what she found on Winry’s bed. What she saw was Winry partially laying on Ed, their hairs messy, clothes disheveled, cheeks blushed and eyes guilty when they turned to look at her.

“This… isn’t what it looks like!” Winry said immediately and stood up as fast as she could.

“Oh? Then what is it?” Gracia asked teasingly.

“Ed's teammate drove him off from his room last night because he was having some... company there so I told Ed he could sleep here… you know, since you don’t,” Winry babbled faster than necessary, the red spots on her cheeks brightening with every word she uttered.

“And that’s clearly the reason why it’s necessary you guys were in the same bed, doing something that clearly looked like…”

“Um… we… we were just having a tickling contest.” Winry mumbled.

“Besides, you came here without a warning,” Ed added, still upset about the interruption.

“Ed! You don’t have to be rude. Technically, this is her room too,” Winry scolded him.

“It’s OK,” Gracia shook her head, trying to hide her amusement. “Don’t worry Ed, I was just teasing you guys.” The playful smirk returned to her face soon, however. “You should have seen yourselves, though, you are just like I and Maes were a few years ago…”

The two youngsters groaned and Ed buried his face into his pillow with embarrassment. Finally, Winry remembered to ask:

“Why did you come here in the first place? Did you forget something here?”

“Oh no, I just came to see you, thinking we’d go to the meeting together. Maybe get a chance to catch up, and stuff. You did remember about the meeting, right?” She eyed her messy look suspiciously.

“Of course I did!” Winry said defensively. “I know Garfiel would kill me if I missed it.”

“He wouldn’t do that to you, he’s completely smitten over you. I swear, when we are alone, he always praises you to the moon and back.”

“Oh? I didn’t know that. Uhm, guess I’ll brush my hair and… then we can go. Edward,” Winry turned to him seriously. “I don’t mind you staying here after I go but if I ever find out you’ve touched any of my stuff… you’ll regret it.”  
“Wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that!” he grinned innocently and earned a light punch on his shoulder. “What? I’m telling the truth!”

“OK, OK. I trust you.” Winry sighed and straightened her hoodie. “I’ll text you when I’m done with everything.”

“Great. Later!” he waved his hand lazily, settling back into Winry’s bed once he heard the door closing.

One part of him wished, the other part didn’t, that the earlier dream would return…

...

“Winry, your doctor just dropped in and said he wanted to make the final check-up before the big competition. How’s your foot feeling right now?” Garfiel asked when the two women showed up at the arena where the rest of their figure skating team was already waiting.

“It’s much better now, I don’t really feel anything weird in it anymore,” Winry reassured him, making some moves with it to prove her point.

“That sounds very promising! If the doctor gives you a green light, you might even get to practice a bit before the short program.”

“Awesome! I can’t wait to get back to the ice,” Winry said with excitement. She felt a tiny twinge of guilt when she remembered that Ed wasn’t as lucky, but she had learned to read him well enough to know he wouldn’t want her to worry about him when she was about to compete in her biggest competition yet.

“Hey, how did things go with your little boyfriend last night?” Paninya asked when Garfiel left the room for a moment to get some papers.

“He’s still not my boyfriend, Pan, but I’d say the things are… progressing.” Winry’s face went adorably pink as she recalled the moments they had shared in her room.

“What do you mean? Please tell me you guys have smooched already.”

“N-no, we haven’t! But for a moment it felt like he was going to…”

“I think Maes needs to have a little talk with him. The boy slept in your bed and he still hasn’t kissed you?! Tsk tsk,” Gracia gave her input.

“Gracia! Like I said, it wasn’t what it looked like! He just… comforted me because I was upset about something and then we just sort of… fell asleep… in my bed… and we were just goofing around... I mean... playing... before you arrived… Gosh, that sounds so bad!”

“Winry, what have I missed?” Paninya asked immediately. “Why was he in your room?”

“Paninya, please, keep quiet! Not everyone needs to know about this! He was in my room because his roommate had a 'lady friend' and wouldn't let him in, so I couldn’t just leave him in the hallway.”

“But what if he had taken advantage of you or something? You've only known this guy for a little while...”

“He has a broken leg, do you think I wouldn’t be able to deal with him if it came down to it?” Winry pretended to be offended that her friend had so little faith in her. “Besides, I trust him. He wouldn’t do anything like that. I was telling the truth earlier, he hasn’t even kissed me even though he could have.”

“Is it just me or did you just sound upset when you said that final part?” Paninya continued her taunting. She hadn’t ever seen Winry this into someone and she wouldn’t waste the opportunity to tease her. Winry had done the same to her when she had had a huge crush on Rosé but neither had dared to make the first move.

“Uh… don’t be ridiculous, Pan. I respect his choice and won’t rush him into anything.”

“You still want to get into his pants. Oh man, I hope he’s gonna make his first move soon because you look like you are going to explode from all the tension any minute now.”

“Can we please change the topic now?” Winry pleaded, raising her hand in the air in defeat.

“Give her a break, Pan,” Rosé, the only person who would get her quiet, finally said. “Hey, let’s talk about the Olympics instead. I overheard Mei Chang talking with a reporter the other day, she seemed really confident about winning a medal in the individual competition.”

“Huh, that little brat? Winry, you have to promise you’ll beat her, I can’t take another fourth place like in the team event… She beat our Gracia by only 0,1 points!”

“Paninya, you are over dramatic. I’ve talked to her a few times and she’s fine. Her team was simply better this time. As for the next competition… I’ll do my best. But so will you! I don’t understand why you all are raising me on the pedestal when you guys are just as good and have been able to train unlike me!”

“Pffft, you know you are better than us, there’s no need to pretend.”

“Nope.” Winry refused to accept Paninya’s compliments. “Repeat after me: I will do my best no matter what, and I will not compare myself to others.”

“Fine. I will do my best no matter what, and I will not compare myself to others. But you owe me now, you’ll have to tell me all the juicy details about Edward afterwards.”

“Pan!!!”

 

...

 

“Hey, Mustang, have you seen Havoc?” Ed asked when he and Al showed up in team Amestris’ locker room later that day.

“Think he’s loitering in the coffee room, he was just complaining about a huge headache or something.”

“Leave it for him to get shitdrunk a night before the important match…” Ed sighed. “If you guys are ever gonna throw me a party again, either don’t invite him, or at least make sure it’s not right before you’re supposed to play team Xing.”

“Duly noted. Although I seem to recall your preparation for some of your previous games wasn’t always the epitome of professional either.”

“Hey! At least they weren’t the Olympic games! I take this stuff seriously, Captain Bastard.”

“Chill out, Fullmetal. I was just provoking you. Why did you want to see Havoc anyway?”

“I need to talk to him... about something that happened last night…” Ed didn’t want to reveal anything about the night with Winry to Roy, but he should have known he wouldn’t get off with it so easily. Especially not with Al around.

“Brother, you’re hiding something. What is it?” the younger brother asked curiously.

"Not your business!"

Unfortunately for Ed, the word at the Olympics spread fast. He had forgotten Gracia knew, and if Gracia knew, it meant also…

“Yo, Edward! I heard you had some lady company last night!”

Ed swore that in that moment the stitches in his leg were ripped open simply from the shock. Maes looked extremely happy, Roy looked like he was about to burst any minute now, and Al was having that mischievous smile of his that never knew anything good.

“Gracia told you?” Ed mumbled through his hands, trying to cover his embarrassed face.

“You have a good taste Ed, figure skaters are fantastic in…”

“STOP! I don’t want to hear any more!” Ed yelled before Maes managed to finish his sentence.

“Wait a second…” Roy finally found his voice. “Did I understand correctly that you spent a night with the lovely Ms. Rockbell?”

“So what if I did? How many times do I need to tell you it’s none of your fucking business, Mustang?”

“And how many times do I need to tell you to watch your language, Edward?”

Al finally saw his chance to participate in the discussion: “Brother, I didn’t think you’d have it in you. Congratulations! One question, though: how the hell did you woo her?”

“I didn’t ‘woo’ her, we didn’t do anything!”

“Just when I thought you had gained some balls… Disappointing, Fullmetal.” Roy shook his head.

“Ugh, can I explain what happened? I was getting into my own room, but when I got in, guess who I found fucking his girlfriend there? That's right, Havoc! So Winry suggested I sleep in the extra bed in her room, and that's what I did!”

“Bleh, I don’t believe that’s all there is to it. You did get into /her/ bed, didn’t you?” Al asked.

“And why the fuck does this interest all of you?”

Ed seemed to be very close to throw his crutches to the closest person’s head so Roy decided to calm the situation down.

“I’m gonna be honest, for once, Ed. I really don’t want to hear what happened between you and Winry. It’s just too much fun to see you that flustered. But believe it or not, I am happy that you are making progress with her because I’ve seen her make you smile during this short time more than you have smiled in probably ten years. Tell her my regards to keep on doing whatever she’s doing with you.”

“What’s going on here? Why is everyone being so loud?” Havoc entered the room, still holding a bag of ice on his head.

“Look, it’s our hero, Jean Havoc, whom we can thank for Edward’s latest adventure.” Hughes laughed.

“Huh?” the blonde-haired man asked in confusion, having not heard about what had happened to Ed yet.

“Edward spent a night with a lady friend thanks to your... shenanigans.”

Havoc burst out laughing and only stopped to say:

“That almost makes this headache worth it!”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hockey time! And brotherly teasing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems I've gotten a bit lazy with the updates lately (no surprises there). But at least we are getting pretty close to where I am on tumblr so that's cool! Just thought I'd "warn" you: the chapter after this is a long one and I /might/ do some major editing to it so don't be surprised if it takes me a while to post it here. Anyway, please enjoy and always remember that I live for comments :)

Ed and Al were walking towards the hockey arena, chatting casually about their predictions for the upcoming game. Al claimed Xing would be a tough team to beat, especially with the young Ling Yao as their captain, but in Ed’s opinion his team had the upper hand, even if he himself wasn’t able to play. At some point, Al noticed Ed was looking around him restlessly, barely listening to what he had to say.

“Are you trying to find something?”

“No, someone," Ed finally admitted. "Winry wanted to come to watch this game with us, but I’m not seeing her yet… I hope she’s gonna come soon, I’d rather be inside when the fans start arriving.”

“I didn’t think I’d see a day when you don’t want any attention. What’s caused this change?”

“Hey, I only want attention when I’m on the ice! You know I’m actually not that big a fan of large crowds. Besides… I really don’t want the media attention on us…”

“Oh, because she’s coming?" Al asked slyly. "I can already see the headline: ‘famous hockey player and figure skater hitting it off’. That will make some wonderful news, my brother.”

“Al, please! How many times do I need to tell you I’m getting tired of your shit?”

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this? Sure, you’ve had girls before, but I can see this is different. Both of you actually care about each other.”

“She is the first person I am interested in who didn’t freak out about my automail when she heard about it. She didn’t freak out about Envy or Nina either when I told her…”

“Wow. I didn’t know you were in that deep,” Al said, this time seriously. “Telling about your automail was one thing, but you have never told anyone about Nina.”

“I know… It’s just, I’m still so confused about everything.” Ed was quiet for a few moments before adding hesitantly: “There are still moments when I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what exactly?” Al frowned at him.

“That I’d lose her just like I’ve lost them.”

Al didn’t need to ask who those “they” were, he understood.

“We’ve been through this before. Look, I get your feeling, but I wish you didn't let it control you. That is FAR more likely to make you lose something that could become truly precious to you. Let me ask you one question: does she make you happy?”

“She does,” Ed admitted reluctantly, knowing where Al was going with this.

“Then that’s your answer. Give her a shot. You know, one part of me thinks the real reason why you act like this is because you think you don’t deserve to be happy. Brother, no one is blaming you for anything that happened. You shouldn’t either. That’s the last I’m gonna say, because there she is.”

Al pointed towards a big statue right outside the arena, and Ed saw he was right. There she was, her hair on her trademark ponytail, cheeks pink from the cold weather, and (to Ed’s horror/excitement) Team Amestris’ hockey jersey pulled over her coat. Ed blushed wildly when he remembered the dream also involving Winry and a similar jersey, but thankfully Al got him back to earth by saying:

“At that rate you won’t ever be needing my birthday gift. You just went tomato red simply over seeing her.”

“Will you fucking stop it already?” he turned his attention to his brother, glad to have an excuse to get the piled-up emotions out of his system.

“Why are you yelling?” Winry, who had noticed the brothers approaching her, was now standing in front of them and staring at Ed with confusion.

“Don’t mind him, he’s simply an idiot,” Al shook it off. “He does this a lot.”

Winry snorted. “That’s good to know.”

“If you are going to hang out with him more, I should probably give you a 101 on communicating with Edward Elric. You’ll need it.”

“Based on his reactions, it’s probably the exact opposite of what you are doing right now. That’s a good start.” Winry nodded, pretending to take notes.

“Can we please just go inside now?” Ed growled and glared at his brother and his friend angrily.

Winry turned back to Ed and smiled at him apologetically.

“Hey. Sorry I couldn’t make it to the lunch, the doctor’s check-up took longer than I expected… and guess what! I got to skate a bit! Only for 15 minutes, because we don’t want to risk anything, but it still felt very good. I got to do both my routines once.”

“That’s great. Did your foot feel fine?”

“Yes, it’s way better now. Nothing should stop me from competing now!”

“We’ll be rooting for you!” Al exclaimed, surprising both Ed and Winry.

“I’ll be rooting for her, you’ll be rooting for that Xingese bean girl,” Ed corrected, not forgetting how Al had gushed about Mei Chang even earlier that day.

“Can’t I root for both?” Al pouted, making Ed laugh.

“Sure. Once you stop asking me if I’ve seen her at breakfast, lunch, dinner, gym or basically anywhere I go.”

“I do not do that!” the younger brother claimed.

Winry stopped the brothers’ bickering. “As much fun as it is to see you both try to embarrass each other in front of me, I still don’t know who this bean girl is. The Xingese are really good, Mei Chang and Lan Fan are top contenders for the gold medal in the individual contest.”

“And you aren’t?” Ed didn’t like that Winry belittled her skills. “Anyway, Al is talking about that Mei girl, I think he’s had a celebrity crush on her for at least two years.”

“You watch figure skating regularly?” Winry asked. “Edward, your brother keeps impressing me. Maybe I should ask him out or something.”

Winry meant it in a purely teasing way, not having any plans to ask Al out because she happened to be interested in his brother, but Ed couldn’t quite digest it.

“W-why would you do that?”

“Because I want to make sure the guy I will date appreciates my sport.”

“But I do appreciate your sport too! I just don't gush about it like he does!”

“Relax, Ed, I was only joking.” She snuck her hand right next to Ed’s and squeezed it briefly. "Sorry Al, I hope you don't mind."

"Of course I don't. I really enjoy seeing my brother getting so flustered." He winked and started walking a bit faster to give Ed and Winry a chance to talk without his interruptions.

 

...

 

“What the fuck! How could you miss that?!” Winry yelled when Havoc’s shot hit the top bar goal even though it had looked like he would definitely score from that spot.

“Woah, woman, I didn’t know you even knew words like that! Just yell that in your competition and you’ll be sure to win all the prizes.” Ed was very amused by the fact that Winry seemed more involved in the game than he was, even though he was a member of the team that was currently playing in this arena. He hadn’t seen this side of her yet, so he was more than enjoying it.

“I believe that was just his hangover talking. On a normal day he would have scored from that spot 99 out of one hundred times,” he added.

Not too long after Havoc’s shot, Hughes’ stick slightly hit Xing’s Ling Yao to his skate. Even though the hit wasn’t enough to make anyone fall, Ling dropped down dramatically, pretending Hughes had done it on purpose. The referees hadn’t quite seen what Ling did, so purely based on his reaction, they called a penalty for team Amestris, and Hughes could only shake his head when he skated into the penalty box.

“Fucking zebras!” both Ed and Winry yelled angrily this time, almost in sync (which amused Al to no end).

“That Yao guy was clearly diving, there was absolutely no reason to call a penalty on us!” Ed yammered, shaking his fist towards the ice.

“I know right!” Winry joined him. “Jeez, are they totally blind?!”

“Probably. Anyone with eyes could see what happened!”

“You guys are so adorable,” Al interrupted the angry duo. “I never knew I’d see a day Ed would find someone who’s as eager to comment the games as he is!”

“Alphonse, you are making me regret I ever asked you to come here,” Ed had to stop him for the who-knows-how-many-th time within a very short span of time. “Hey, how are things with Ms. Chang? Have you, you know, met her yet?”

“Oh, did I mention I’m on friendly terms with Mei?” Winry asked before Al got a chance to answer. “She’s a nice person even though we are rivals, I’d be happy to introduce her to you if I get a chance!”

“Would you do that?” Al asked excitedly. “It would be great!”

“I think I could arrange that once our competitions are over.”

“Awesome! Thanks, Winry.”

“No problem, Al,” Winry reassured him before turning her eyes back to the ice. “HEY, THAT WAS AN OFFSIDE!!”

...

 

The first period was rather even. Both teams had a couple of great scoring opportunities, but neither Amestris or Xing managed to use them. Armstrong was playing an amazing game, but so was Xing’s goalie, and neither of them gave up an inch. Ling Yao from team Xing had probably the best scoring chance when he was released from the penalty box (where he was sent after the referees caught him diving for the third time within a period) and he got into a 2-on-1 breakaway with his teammate. Once again Ed and Winry yelled their profanities loudly, Winry even covering her eyes with her hands so she didn’t have to watch. They sighed of relief when they saw the game saver Alex Louis Armstrong pulled. The period ended goalless, but it definitely wasn’t boring, Ed, Winry and Al concluded.

 

...

 

“We found Team Amestris’ young star Edward Elric from the Shamballa Arena! Mr. Elric, we all want to know how your leg is doing,” An Amestrisian Olympics reporter had blocked Ed’s bath to a popcorn stand and was now holding a microphone in front of him, expecting an answer.

“Obviously not good, since I can’t play nor walk,” Ed pointed out.

“Right… Is it difficult to watch the game when you know you can’t help your team?”

“Why are you asking that when you know the answer?” Ed asked back, rather rudely, but in that moment he didn’t care. “Of course it’s hard.”

“Do you have any idea when you will be able to return back to ice?”

“Nope, and I'd keep that information to myself even if I did.”

“OK… Hey, is it true that you came here with Winry Rockbell?” the reporter continued persistently. “The word is that you guys sat next to each other and were seen talking with each other passionately during the first period of this game.”

“Did your sources remember to mention that my brother was sitting with us as well?”

“Yes, but…”

Just when Ed was finally about to succeed in making the reporter leave, Winry chose a very bad moment to show up.

“Ed, I came to see what is taking you so long… I was getting worried you had fallen or something... Oh!” She counted 1+1=2 when she saw the woman with a microphone and a notepad peeking from her bag. “Did I interrupt something?”

“Not at all. Miss Rockbell, right? What a coincidence, we were just talking about you.”

“You were?” Winry asked with surprise.

Before Ed had time to say anything, the reporter exclaimed: “Oh yes! I was just asking him if it was true you two were hanging out. And clearly it’s true since you are standing right there!”

“Umm…” Winry stared at her uncomfortably.

“So, how do you know each other? Did you meet here at the Olympics? Are you dating?”

Finally, Ed found his voice. It was surprisingly calm (Ed thought Al would be proud of him), but his eyes burning angrily as he stared at the reporter:

“Can I ask you a question? How would it change anything if we were dating? What does it matter if two teenagers are seeing each other even if they are professional athletes?”

The reporter didn’t know what to answer, so she finally set her mic down and left. Ed burst out laughing and Winry shook her head at him.

“I don’t think that reporter is gonna ask you any questions in a while,” she couldn’t help but smile at the laughing boy. “I must say, I was rather impressed with how you handled that. To be honest, I was expecting yelling.”

“Hey, I can surprise sometimes too!”

“You sure can,” Winry laughed. “Hey, did you get the popcorn yet? The second period is about to start.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hockey game continues and something else happens too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! This is a long chapter so it took a little while to go through. I hope you guys enjoy, and don't forget to review :3

The second period was even more eventful than the first one. 3 minutes into it, Havoc finally got to show he was still capable of scoring. Mustang sent him a pass that was hard to miss, and he finished the job successfully. Not long after, though, Team Xing scored and got the control of the game to themselves. However, their momentum ended when one of their players lost the puck too close to his own goal line and Hughes didn’t miss his opportunity to score. The Amestrisian crowd cheered loudly as he hugged his linemates enthusiastically and waved to the crowd where, Winry believed, Gracia was sitting.

“Fuck yes!” Ed yelled loudly as well, throwing his fist in the air. “That was a damn important goal!”

“But the Xingese are good too, don’t think this decided anything yet!” Al tried to calm him down.

And he was right. Only a minute later Amestris got shorthanded because they had too many men on the ice, giving Xing a powerplay. One of their defensemen had an amazing slapshot, and when Ling Yao made a screen in front of Armstrong, he had an easy job getting the puck behind the huge goalie.

“Told ya,” Al said, a little too smugly.

“Hey, whose side are you on?” Ed growled, frustrated he couldn’t be on the ice to help his team.

“Boys, calm down, the game is on again,” Winry tried to keep the peace between them.

The speed in this game was much, much faster than Ed remembered it being against Drachma. One moment the puck was in Amestris’ defensive zone, the next moment it was in Xing’s. The players focused more on the offense than defense, resulting in the third goal for both Amestris and Xing before the period ended.

“I could barely breathe out there,” Ed said during the intermission. “It’s so much easier when you get to play, because at least then you can try to help your team. This is fucking torture! Remind me to never break my leg again.”

“Can’t make such promises for you.” She threw her arm on his shoulder, continuing: “But relax, at least they are not losing!”

“How can you be so calm?” Ed asked with disbelief, side eyeing Winry. 

“Not calm, just having faith in your team. Unlike someone.”

Winry wasn’t so calm about five minutes later when the third period was on and Xing had scored 2 more goals. Both she and Ed had covered their eyes with their hands after Armstrong picked the puck from behind him for the fifth time.

“I’m sure they’ll get over this,” Al tried to calm them down, but earned only enraged looks from them. “What! What does the win even matter, they’ll be in the quarter finals anyway!”

“It makes a huge difference!” Ed exclaimed, balling his hands into fists. “If they win this either on the regulation or overtime, they’ll win their group and get to play against the supposedly easiest opponent in the quarter finals! If they get 0 or 1 points, they’ll be second in their group and the opponent will be tougher.”

“Alright, alright! I believe you!” Al said and decided to ignore the swearing next to him.

For a good while the situation looked bad for Team Amestris. They didn’t seem to get the game into their control no matter how hard they tried, and it didn’t help them that at one point Roy accidentally shot the puck into the audience from his defensive zone, getting a penalty for the delay of the game. Somehow, the team still managed to kill the penalty and got new confidence from it. Unfortunately for them, though, they only had 5 minutes left of the regulation.

The game changed its direction when Bradley asked for a time-out a good two minutes before the end of the period. After the time-out, Armstrong stayed on the bench as the team played with four forwards and two defensemen, scoring only 15 seconds later. The Xingese nearly caused Ed, Al and Winry a heart attack soon after, though, when the puck missed the empty net in Amestris’ defensive zone only by a few inches. 

Winry noticed she was gnawing her finger nails when there were only 10 seconds left of the period and Amestris still hadn’t scored. They were on their way to their offensive zone, and Havoc passed to Roy who passed to Fuery who passed back to Havoc… Suddenly Havoc managed to trick a couple of Xing’s players and got face to face with the goalie, noticing he hadn’t remembered to close the space between the leg pads… And only 2 seconds before the end of the period, the puck was in, and the game was tied.

“Goddammit, Havoc! Remind me to buy you a beer or even two when I get a chance again!” Ed yelled and spontaneously hugged Winry who was jumping next to him, equally excited.

“Oh my gosh! I was so sure they’d lose!” Winry shrieked, trying to get her voice heard over the roaring audience. “Fucking awesome!”

“Yeah, but let’s not forget this game isn’t over yet,” Al reminded the others, and once again Ed stared at his brother with disbelief.

“Don’t ruin our fun!”

“Just stating the facts, brother.”

Team Amestris got new strength from the late-period goal and when the overtime started, they looked like they were ready to win. A couple of times Winry had to look away when team Xing’s players (usually Ling Yao in the lead) crossed the line to their offensive zone, but every time the situation ended with an Amestrisian tackling them cleanly yet powerfully and taking the hold of the puck. Only two minutes later, Breda shot the puck towards Xing’s goalie, who made the save. However, the puck was still in the game, and Havoc put the rebound into the net. The game was over.

“Only Havoc would manage to score a hat trick when hangover,” Ed laughed-cried while holding Winry for support. “I’ll have to buy him three beers! And I might even forgive him for driving me away from my room.”

“I’m gonna want to see you guys drinking,” Winry laughed. “Remember to invite me too!”

“I will!”

Neither of them noticed Al’s cheer after the goal was louder than either of them.

 

 

Several hours later, when Ed was already laying in his bed waiting for the sleep to come, he noticed his phone was vibrating on the night table, informing him of a new message. He opened the lock screen and saw the message was from Winry.

“Can’t sleep. Are you still up?” she asked.

He quickly typed the reply:

“Yeah”

From the speech bubble on the screen he saw that she was typing again and waited.

“Good. I hope I didn’t wake you up or anything.”

“Nah, I couldn’t sleep either,” he replied.

After a minute or two, Winry sent another message.

“Would you like to come over? Idk, I just find it easier/nicer to talk face to face.”

Ed’s cheeks flushed when he took the message in, wondering if these nightly visits had a deeper meaning than they let on. Was she expecting something? Did she already consider them a couple?

“I guess I could…” He answered carefully, not wanting to sound too eager.

“Great. I’ll see you soon then?”

“Yeah” he typed and sat up on his bed, starting to look for his clothes. His hotel room was rather warm, so he only wore boxer briefs and nothing else at night. Finding his Amestris green college pants and a black T-shirt that was a bit too snug for his liking from the chair next to his bed, he pulled them on before getting up. He also snatched his crutches, phone, and the card key, and hopped out of his room, cringing when he realized the crutches might have waken Havoc up. The teammates living closest to him could easily hear him as well and no doubt use the information against him later on. He just had to ignore that now, he had already promised he would visit Winry.

Apparently she had heard the crutches too because she opened the door before Ed had time to knock.

“Hi,” she smiled widely at him from the dimly lit room.

“H-hi,” Ed stuttered, wondering why he couldn’t talk normally to her even though they had literally hung out together only a few hours earlier, and everything had gone just fine.

“Come on in,” she moved aside so he had space to get into her room.

“So, what's up? Was there something specific you wanted to talk about?” Ed asked, sitting down on a chair next to the desk and leaning his elbows on his knees.

“No, not really.” She shrugged. “I just wanted to tell you I had a good time tonight with you guys.”

“That’s… good to hear. It was fun seeing you getting so excited, I didn’t know you were such a big hockey fan.” he said with more confidence.

“I told you I used to play hockey when I was younger,” she reminded him.

“Right…”

There was a long silence, filling the air with thick tension. Both youngsters knew what they wanted to say but couldn’t find the courage to do it. Finally, after fiddling with her hands for a good while nervously, Winry spoke.

“Listen… You were honest with me yesterday so I’m gonna be honest too. After all, it’s fair we start the game from the same line, right?”

Ed couldn’t help but smile a bit when he got the hockey reference. “Right.”

“Or I don’t know,” Winry continued her babbling, “I’ve heard some chemists… or were they alchemists? I don’t know, I haven’t really studied chemistry so much… why am I rambling like this again? Um, anyway, they say they believe in equivalent exchange… and I don’t know, I guess it makes sense…”

“Wow… I never thought I’d hear you say those words aloud,” Ed said, his eyes suddenly burning excitedly. “I have sworn in the name of equivalent exchange for longer than I can remember.”

“You have?”

“Absolutely.” Ed nodded eagerly. “You were about to say something else, though.”

“Yeah… It isn’t that important, though.”

“I think it is if you are that nervous to say it,” Ed stated, surprised that suddenly he was the more confident one in the room.

Winry swept her sweaty hands against her pajamas, taking a deep breath. “Ok then… You remember how you said you needed to figure some things out? Well… I think I have my own thoughts figured out now.”

“And?” Ed tried to encourage her, although he himself was feeling nervous too. What if she was going to say she didn’t think seeing him was a good idea, after all? He might have said those exact words to her earlier but regretted it now. He was already too damn fond of this woman.

“I am… I think I’ve started to fall for you.” She finally blurted, her heart feeling like it might jump out of her chest any minute now, face heating dangerously.

“You… what?” Ed asked stupidly, his mouth forming a huge “o”.

“Do I need to spell it to you?” She got a bit frustrated, crossing her arms against her chest. “I like you. In a non-friendly way."

“Winry…”

Ed’s mouth was still hanging when his phone suddenly started ringing.

“If that is my idiot of a brother, I swear to… What the fuck?” He swore out loud when he saw the name on the screen. “It’s not Al. Hang on… As much as I want to turn this thing off and throw it out of the window… he never calls. Gotta find out what…” His tone changed entirely, to 100 degrees cooler, when he answered. “If it isn’t my good-for-nothing father… Why are you calling at 11 fucking 30 at night?”

The voice from the other end of the line said, calmly: “Hello to you too, son. I tried to reach you earlier, but you didn’t answer.”

“That’s not true. I don’t have any missed calls…” Suddenly Ed recalled something. “I did turn off my phone during the game, though, but are you really that stupid you’d try to call me when my team is playing?”

“That’s why I tried to call you. I saw on TV that you weren’t playing and wanted to know why.”

“… Al didn’t tell you before he left?” Ed asked, genuinely surprised.

“I believe he didn’t.” Van Hohenheim said sadly. Ed exchanged confused looks with Winry. Was his father really expressing sorrow?

“That’s not like him. He tells you way more about our lives than I do,” Ed stated matter-of-factly.

“I won’t disagree with you on that. But could you answer my question now? What happened to you?”

“If you must know,” Ed said with a venomous voice, all the times his father hadn’t cared in his mind, “I broke my leg when someone tackled me against the rink side in the first game. You would of course have known that had you actually watched that game.”

“You know I am busy, I was at the laboratory making some very important research during your first game.”

“Right,” the younger man spat, “that and the fact that you don’t actually care about the wellbeing of your sons.”

“I am calling you now! Doesn’t that prove…”

“It doesn’t prove a shit!” Ed was yelling now, making Winry a little scared. “You didn’t even bother to check any headlines about that game, otherwise you would have known what happened! You didn’t ask me or Al how my game had gone, and hell, you didn’t even remember yesterday was my 18th birthday! Stop pretending you care because clearly you don’t!”

“I, uh… it was your birthday? Happy birthday, Edward.”

“It’s too late now! Just leave me alone.” He breathed heavily, clenching his automail fist.

There was a long silence again. Ed was just about to hang up when his father finally spoke.

“Edward. I think there’s something you should know.”

“Well?” he asked, not even bother to hide his frustration.

“There are two reasons why I’ve been so distant ever since…” Hohenheim couldn’t finish his sentence. What had happened to his wife still hurt him more than he wanted to admit.

“… Mum died. You can say it out loud, I’m not a baby anymore,” Ed snarled.

“The first reason is that you… you remind me more of her than you probably realize.”

Ed wanted to point out how stupid that sounded, but his curiosity took over. “But how? As much as I hate to admit it, I look just like you. Al is the one with mother’s eyes and stuff.”

“No, it’s not the looks.” Hohenheim shook his head, even though Ed couldn’t see him. “You have inherited some of your most visible traits, your persistency, strong will and loyalty from her. When you speak, I can hear her say those exact same things.”

“Father…” Ed bit his lip, trying to not explode in front of Winry. But he was close to spilling now.

“It makes my heart ache so much," Hohenheim said suddenly. "Hearing her words but knowing we can’t ever get her back.”

That was the last straw for Ed. All the bottled emotions demanded to get out, and he couldn’t hold them any longer. He was shaking and clenching his fist even harder than before.

“And you fucking think I don’t know how that feels?! I LOST HER TOO! I LOST HER AND I LOST NINA AND I LOST YOU TOO BECAUSE YOU WERE NEVER THERE WHEN I NEEDED YOU!”

The memories of the 5-year-old him came suddenly back to him. He could see himself peeking into his father’s room through the keyhole and seeing his father just staring the wall apathetically. When he went inside to ask him if he could cook something because Al was hungry, he said nothing. The boys had ended up going to the Rockbells for the dinner that night, and the little girl there had comforted him… For a brief moment Ed wondered if Winry remembered that. But then the frustration and anger took over again.

“DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FELT LIKE TO BE 5 YEARS OLD, HAVING JUST LOST MY MOTHER, AND THEN I CAME INTO YOUR ROOM, TRYING TO ASK YOU TO HELP ME WITH SOMETHING… AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE I WAS THERE? DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?! WE NEEDED YOU. WE STILL DO. YOU HAVE TO GET OVER YOURSELF AND ACCEPT THAT THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO WISH YOU TO BE THERE FOR THEM.”

A single teardrop fell down his cheek when he finished, in a calm and cold voice: “To be honest… I’ve learned to live without you a long time ago… but Al still wishes you’d notice him.”

“Edward…” Hohenheim said quietly, Ed’s words still echoing in his head, “if you think I don’t feel guilty about everything… every single moment… you are wrong.”

“What are you talking about? You have never shown any guilt or regret to us!”

“I still think I should have noticed the signs of illness from your mother earlier. I constantly feel I should have found a cure for it. I am constantly aware I should have been the father you boys deserved. The reason why I have avoided watching your games or reading game reports is not because I don’t care. It’s just, the first thing that comes to my mind when I see the news about you is ‘my son is doing so well. And he’s doing it all without my help.’ And the guilt gets nearly unbearable.”

Edward was quiet for a while. Suddenly, he realized he and his father had more in common than he had thought. After the incident with Nina, he had systematically gotten rid of the objects that reminded him of her and shut the guilt of not being able to save her deep inside of him. The pain had gotten so great he had decided he would not let people to get close to him again. Except… He had failed in his plan. He glanced at the girl next to him briefly, wondering what she was thinking about.

“You idiot,” he said suddenly, his voice missing the earlier fire, “what happened to her was out of your control! But you were a coward not being able to face us like you should have. Anyway… You can’t get the lost years back… but you can still be there for us!”

Hohenheim seemed to be considering it for a moment before answering: “I… I’ll try my best.”

“That’s all I’m asking for,” Ed said more calmly. “So, what was the other reason why you have been like that?” He might have understood his father a bit better now, but he wouldn’t still let him get away with his past misbehavior that easily.

“I’ve been doing research on the disease your mother died of… And I think I’m finally close to finding a cure. Yes, we can’t ever bring her back, but we can at least make sure no one else has to suffer the same fate.”

“That’s good.” Ed would have wanted to say much more, ask why Hohenheim hadn’t told about all this years earlier, but suddenly he remembered he was still in Winry’s room and decided it was better if he didn’t push it any further. Either way, the phone call had already changed his view of his father a bit.

“Uh, listen, I’m with someone right now and she’s probably gonna kick me out if I continue my yelling much longer, so… I should probably go now.”

“She?” Hohenheim asked curiously. “Do we need to have the long-delayed talk now?”

“Don’t you dare to pick this moment to suddenly become a real father!” Ed growled, afraid Winry might have heard.

“OK, OK. I guess you are old enough to make your own choices…”

“You bet I am!”

“Either way, it makes me happy to hear you are making progress with other people. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you have been isolating yourself from others, minus perhaps Al, ever since… that incident happened.”

“Well, that makes us two.”

“Fair enough,” Hohenheim sighed.

“So, bye now… And father?” Ed didn’t know what made him add: “Please call more often.”

“I will.”

He finished the call, feeling the poison that had been swimming in his veins for too many years slowly leaving his body.

“That… felt good.”

“I haven’t ever seen you like that… It was your father, right?” Winry asked, looking at him with a weird expression. Ed thought it looked like half scared, half admiring.

“Yeah… He and I… We haven’t exactly had the easiest relationship. Sorry about yelling like that. The people in this hotel are really gonna hate me, aren’t they?”

“I admit it’s a possibility,” Winry said teasingly.

“Right.” Ed was rubbing the back of his neck again, his cheeks getting some extra color.

“So, before my dad called…" he continued. "You said some things. I’m really bad at this stuff and I don’t quite know what I should say to you… I mean, don’t get me wrong, you are awesome, and I can’t believe you just told me you… but like I already said, I want to be sure I can do this. I don’t want to hurt you, Winry.”

“How long do you think figuring it out might take? You know I won’t be able to wait forever,” Winry asked sadly.

“I know. My head’s just so damn full right now.” He turned his back towards her, not able to face her at the moment. “The injury, my past, my father and now this… But you know, Al and some others have been trying to tell me…”

“What did they tell you?” She asked when he didn’t finish his sentence. Ed didn’t get a chance to explain, though, because suddenly Winry noticed a small red foil package peeking from his back pocket “Hey, Ed! What the hell is in your pocket?”

She wouldn’t have asked if she hadn’t been almost sure about it.

“It’s... it's nothing!” Ed panicked, realizing what she must have seen.

“Did you fucking come here thinking you’d score tonight? Have you just been playing hard to get all this time?!” Winry was practically yelling now, aiming a pillow at him.

“No! Absolutely not!” he denied immediately, face red and hating himself for forgetting to leave the condom package into his room. “It’s not like that, Winry!”

"Then what is it like?” she asked sharply.

“Al gave me this as a birthday present yesterday, as a joke. I… When I went to change my clothes this morning, I must have stuffed it into this pocket without thinking, but I swear I did not plan this! I just pulled on the first pants I got into my hands when I came here!”

Winry studied his body language for a while, finally deciding he wouldn’t be that shocked if he had truly planned this.

“You have been honest with me so far, so I want to believe you. But should I really believe that you haven’t ever thought about doing it?” She poked him on the chest accusingly.

“Is this a trap, woman? Yes, I have thought about it, is that what you want me to say?”

“So you have thought about it.”

“Newsflash, you are infuriatingly hot,” Ed growled. “But I would never fucking ever do anything without your consent! And I wouldn’t do anything even with your consent before I have even told you I answer to your feelings!”

That finally quieted Winry down. She hadn’t noticed she had forced Ed to back down against the wall and was now staring right into his eyes, only a few inches between them. She huffed and set her hand on his shoulder as a calming gesture.

“Sorry. I… shouldn’t have freaked out like that," she said quietly. "It’s just… those idiots the other day… and it has happened in Rush Valley too… Those guys keep thinking I’m some kind of prize to be won… They just notice my looks, not what I’m underneath all that!

“I would never think that way! You’re smart and talented and you keep calling me out the way I deserve.”

“You really think so?” Winry asked, surprised. 

“Y-yes,” Ed stuttered, suddenly a bit embarrassed by his confession.

“Ed?”

“Hmm?”

“Kiss me.”

“What? No!” Ed yelled and used Winry’s distraction to jump farther from her.

“What? Didn’t you just say you had…” she asked, confused.

“Yes, but after yesterday I made myself a promise.”

“A promise?”

“That I wouldn’t kiss you or anything else of that nature until I can be sure I can commit myself into a re… relationship.”

Was this really the same guy who yelled obnoxious things to his opponents on the ice and kept pushing people away, Winry wondered. “Wow… that’s actually really sweet…”

“I didn’t know I was capable of being sweet,” Ed smirked, relieved by Winry's reaction, “but I’ll take it. Listen, it’s been a long day and I am getting tired. I should probably go now.”

“How about… you stay here? No kissing or anything, just sleeping. I slept better when we were sharing the bed…”

“No offense, but do you really trust me after what just happened?” Ed scrunched his eyebrows with confusion.

“Yes. I trust you.” Winry's voice was firm and her expression serious.

“OK… In that case, I guess it would be OK.” Ed finally agreed.

“Good. For your information, I’d kick your ass if it came down to it.” 

“I have no doubts about that.”

Not much more was said. Ed laid down on Winry’s bed and she settled next to him, wrapping her arms around his torso. Soon they both fell into a peaceful sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Ed woke up sweaty, his heart pounding rather fast, and for a moment he thought he had seen a nightmare that he didn’t remember anymore. But soon he realized the cause of his ‘distress’ was the other person in his… well, technically, her bed. She was sleeping on his right side, using his chest as her pillow, her leg tangled with his and her right arm wrapped around his torso. She didn’t seem to mind the automail, which was partially under her, one bit, to Ed’s huge surprise. The expression on her face was peaceful, even happy, and Ed couldn’t help but wonder ‘how the fuck this happened’.

For a while he just laid there quietly, thinking about everything that had happened in such a short while. They had been reunited only 14 days ago, yet somehow that time had felt much longer. Even though Ed tried to push the thought away, already something cold seeped into his heart when he remembered they would need to say goodbye only in a few days. What would happen after that? He surely didn’t know.

Only 14 days ago she had skated into his life (he cringed a bit at the cheesy expression he had picked) and changed it more than he could have imagined. It all had started with that awkward question about a figure skating lesson. She had promised to teach him and his team, giving them a chance to catch up while training. Somehow he had told her about the automail during their third meeting, even though usually it took him much longer to determine if someone was trustworthy enough to know about it. Admittedly, Winry had felt it through his glove, making lying pretty much pointless. But the weird kind of acquaintance hadn’t ended with that meeting; she had come into his room a day later, and he had made that stupid mistake that still made him feel embarrassed. Looking back to that moment, Ed realized that somehow, she had already wrapped him around her fingers even though he hadn’t wanted to admit it. Roy had made him understand his feelings a bit better, yet he had screwed up again only a few moments later. Then the accident happened, ending his Olympic journey, but making up with her almost made the pain and frustration worth it. After that, they had somehow gotten even closer, sharing some of their biggest secrets and now even a bed, and as he was staring her, he wanted to open up to her so badly and tell her he was ready, but…

There was the but. Could he really be the person she deserved? He was messed up, practically raised by himself, he had never been in a committed relationship, and before the Olympics he had thought he wouldn’t even want one. Al’s words from earlier echoed in his mind: “you think you don’t deserve happiness.” Ed leaned his head slightly closer to Winry, smelling her hair and thinking that if this was happiness, maybe he could get used to it.

Suddenly a plan formed in his head: he needed to have a talk with someone whose opinion he truly valued, someone who was good at relationships… better than Captain Bastard at least... and after that, he’d finally make his decision. That was what she deserved.

He was pulled back from his thoughts when he felt slight movement next to him.

“Morning.”

He saw the bright blue eyes staring at him, and to his annoyance, he blushed again. How the hell did she do that to him?

“Good morning to you too,” he tried saying nonchalantly, but his voice betrayed him.

“Have you been awake for a long while?” Winry asked, slowly disentangling their limbs as she must have felt just as hot as he did, Ed assumed.

“Nah, just a few minutes. I didn’t want to wake you up. You looked so peaceful.”

“Aww. That’s sweet.” They laid there quietly for a few minutes, until Winry started tracing two small star shaped tattoos on Ed’s shoulder with her fingers.

“I never got a chance to ask… Do these have some kind of meaning?”

“The tattoos?” Ed asked, surprised. “Yeah, they are for my mum and Nina… That I wouldn’t forget. Not that I ever would, but..”

“It’s OK. You don’t have to explain it any further. They look nice.”

“Thanks. My father wasn’t exactly thrilled when he found out, especially since I was only 16 back then and would have needed his permission… But I managed to persuade the tattoo artist.”

“What a rebel,” Winry poked him on his arm teasingly.

“Oh yeah? I don’t see any tattoos on you, woman,” Ed retorted, realizing too late they were so close their noses were almost bumping. “Uh, what time is it?” He asked quickly and sighed of relief when Winry turned to check her watch that was lying on her night table.

“About 7:45, it would seem. Oh!” Winry exclaimed and sat up as fast as she could. “I need to get up! Got a practice in 45 minutes… Guess I forgot to set the alarm…”

“It happens. Isn’t your next competition in two days already?” Ed asked. “Are you nervous about it?”

“I think I am a bit… But on the other hand, everything that has happened within the past few days has been a good distraction. I haven’t thought about it as much as I would have otherwise.”

“Oh… I guess that’s good?”

“It is…” Winry seemed to brace herself a bit before adding: “But..."

"Oh, there is the but." Ed rolled his eyes.

"I’ve been thinking," Winry continued. "I don’t know how I should bring this up, because I don’t want you to misunderstand… but I feel it might be better if we don’t spend time together before my competitions are over. No nightly visits either.”

“OK?” Ed couldn’t hide his confusion. Not too many hours ago she had confessed her feelings, but now she was saying this? “Why, though?”

“Like I just said, I get distracted in your company, and that’s… not what I need right before my competition.” Winry sighed, then looked up and gave Ed a small smile. “You do understand this is very, very important to me, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course.” He nodded.

“Good. And hey,” she added as she stood up, “you should take it as a compliment. It means you have an impact on me.”

For about the millionth time in Winry’s company, Ed turned bright red. Somehow he still managed to get recognizable sounds out of his mouth after Winry returned from the bathroom with her training outfit on: “One question: do you want me to be in the audience? I already promised Al I’d take him to see figure skating. You know, because of that Mei girl.”

“If that’s what you promised, then I think nothing can stop you!” Winry told him, secretly happy that he still wanted to see her skate.

“Good. He would have been devastated,” Ed said dramatically.

“Are you sure it’s Al you’re talking about?” Winry teased but got serious soon. “Listen, I hope you get I’m not doing this because I dislike spending time with you or anything… It’s quite the opposite,” she blushed fiercely remembering what she had confessed last night. “This is just something I have to do. Besides, it’s been quite intense emotionally lately. Maybe it’s a good thing to spend some time apart?”

“Maybe. I guess I understand what you mean. I might do the same thing if I was in your position.”

“I’m glad you understand.” She surprised him by giving him a quick hug and saying: “I gotta go now, but I’ll see you soon enough.”

“See you. And I guess good luck! The next time we see each other, you’d better have a medal hanging from your neck!”

Winry grabbed her sport bag and turned to look at him once more before leaving the room. “I’ll do my best! And hey, remember the promise you told me about yesterday… Just think about it, will you?”

Somehow that one sentence changed the entire atmosphere in the room. Both had red blotches on their cheeks and all Ed could do was to nod. The nod made Winry a bit braver and she gave him a quick cheek kiss before rushing from the room. Ed just sat on the bed looking dumbfounded, rubbing the same cheek Winry had kissed absentmindedly. Her lips had felt so soft, and he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop imagining them until they’d see each other again.

 

 

Pan and Rose were whispering something in their corner of the locker room when Winry arrived there.

“What’s going on? Has something happened?” She asked them a bit nervously, not knowing what to expect.

“Nothing much… The Xingese just left the ice and both Mei Chang and Lan Fan pulled some jump combos I haven’t ever even seen before.” Rosé sighed sadly and shook her head. “I don’t know how we can beat them.”

“Hey, now, that’s a totally wrong attitude! They might look awesome at the practice, but you know those awesome looking things often fail? I have firsthand experience on it…” she reminded them about her incident in the team event.

“Right,” Rosé said, a bit embarrassed.

“You guys are lucky Garfiel isn’t nearby, he’d beat your asses if he ever heard you talk like that near him,” Winry lectured her friends. “Let’s remember that we are professional athletes. Of course you want to beat them, but first and foremost, you are here to beat yourselves. If after your performance you feel you did all you could, then you know you succeeded in your mission.”

“Sometimes I’m so amazed by your confidence,” Rosë stated. “In fact, I think you have gotten even more confident during this tournament compared to before… How do you do that?”

“Because I know there are people behind me who support me, no matter what.” Winry looked at Rosé and Paninya meaningfully. “Trust me, I haven’t always been like this. And… talking about things has helped me a lot. I’ve had a very strange two weeks here… but it has made me readier for this competition, I think.”

“Winry,” Paninya said suddenly, after observing her friend/rival intently for a while. “You’re glowing. Did you sleep with him?”  
“What? No!” she denied immediately. “Although… technically I guess you could say that.”

“Did he spend the night in your room again?” Paninya continued pressing the matter.

“He… may have…” Winry blushed. “But nothing happened!”

“You don’t look like ‘nothing’ happened. Just tell us,” Paninya urged and Rose nodded encouragingly next to her.

“I… Fine, I confessed him.” Winry cringed of embarrassment when she remembered what she had told Ed. “I believe my exact words were ‘I’m starting to fall for you’.”

“I’m so happy for you!” Paninya threw her arm in the air as a sign of victory. “But what did he say? Please tell me he said he likes you too.”

“I think he likes me back,” Winry answered a bit uncertainly. “I mean, it sure seems that way. But he says he needs to be sure he’s mentally ready for a relationship before he says or does anything he might regret.”

“To me it sounds like he’s completely smitten over you,” Paninya noted. “I know guys who would just fuck with the girl, screw the consequences. But he’s spent two nights with you now and hasn’t even tried to kiss you? That requires some willpower.”

“What are you talking about?” Winry asked with confusion.

“Girl, have you seen yourself? You’re gorgeous, and smart, and funny, and everything anyone would want in their partner. I may have had a crush on you when I was like 12,” Paninya confessed.

That was news for Winry. “You did? You’ve never told me that.”

“Hey, like I said, we were 12 back then. I got over it a looong time ago. Now I see you more as some kind of a coach-sister-rival-friend combo. Rosé, you know I love you and only you, right?”

“Of course I do, silly,” Rosé smiled at her girlfriend and rubbed her back as a sign of understanding.

“I still can’t believe I won you over,” Pan shook her head with amazement. “What an awesome thing it was that Winry’s guy told you to continue skating because otherwise we wouldn’t have met.”

“You’re right! What a small world and funny coincidence. I think I need to thank him at some point. Win, will you send him my regards?” Rosé asked, smiling softly.

Winry rubbed her neck awkwardly. “I would, but… I sort of told him we shouldn’t see each other until the competitions are over because I need to focus on this. Gosh, what if he’s mad at me now? I tried to explain it to him but what if he didn’t get my point?”

“Relax, Winry. He’s a pro athlete. If he didn’t understand, he’s a lot stupider than your boyfriend should be,” Paninya remarked.

Winry’s eyes grew wide. “B-boyfriend?”

“Aha. Weren’t you just talking about a relationship? Being in a relationship with him would mean he would be your boyfriend. Are you sure you understand the concept?”

“Of course I do!” Winry exclaimed, slightly embarrassed. “I’ve just… never… thought about that word… before. In this context.”

“Oh boy, two dense people like you really deserve each other,” Paninya sighed. “Rosé, we have always been great at sharing our emotions, haven’t we?”

“Sure, if you ignore the fact that you were crushing for me for half a year before telling me.” Rosé winked at her girlfriend.

“It was different! I was worried you were still too upset about… you know…” Paninya stammered, referring to Rosé’s late boyfriend’s accident.

“Right… And I appreciate you giving me the time and space,” Rosé said, taking Pan’s hand into hers. “You seem to know exactly what I need, and that’s why I love you.”

“Aww, guys, you are so sweeeeeeet,” Winry said with a slightly teasing tone.

“Yeah yeah, you are not the only one who’s allowed to have an Olympic romance, you know.” Pan retorted, and suddenly all three girls burst out laughing.

“No matter what happens, I guess we can still say this journey has definitely been an experience,” Winry concluded for all of them.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wild Izumi appears!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are getting close to where I am with this fic on tumblr! 4 more chapters to go. Perhaps that's the reason why I've been slowing down with these updates too. Anyway, once again I hope you guys enjoy, and thanks for the lovely comments, they are /always/ appreciated!!

”Isn’t it my old student Edward? It’s been quite a while.”

Like he had decided earlier that morning, Ed called to the most maternal person he had in his life. She was Izumi Curtis, his old “nanny” and teacher. Izumi was very strict when it came to training and household work, but she was also someone whose opinion Ed respected, and whose relationship with her husband was probably the longest and healthiest one he knew. Truth to be told, Ed was sometimes slightly scared of her because of her random outbursts, but he also knew she was fair and wouldn’t just shrug off his issue.

“Uh, yeah, it has…” Ed couldn’t help but rub his neck awkwardly even though Izumi couldn’t see him. “Sorry about that… I’ve just been busy. So, how’s everything in Dublith? How are you and Mr. Sig doing?”

“The business has been, well, busy lately!” Izumi answered, deciding to start from a safe topic. “Sig and I are having our hands full with our shop. But why do I have a feeling that that’s not actually the reason why you are calling me?”

“How can you hear it through the phone?” Ed couldn’t hide his amazement. She was obviously right, but he wasn’t going to jump to the reason of his call that fast.

“Because even though we haven’t seen each other in a while, I know you, Ed. You never call people just to ask how they are doing.”

Ed had to admit he had never been a phone call person, not even before the Nina incident. “Ouch. That might be kinda true, though.”

“Yes, I know it is. Anyway, before we get to the reason of your call, I need to ask: how did you allow yourself to get hurt like that?! Wasn’t playing at the Olympics your dream even before I left your home? Didn’t I teach you to always watch your back?”

Even though Ed knew about his old teacher’s temper, he was still slightly taken aback by her questions. And also pleased to hear at least someone had watched that game.

“Hey, it’s not like I planned that to happen!" he exclaimed. "That guy just got mad and completely blindsided me! Do you think I’m enjoying not being able to walk not to mention to play?”

“You’re right,” Izumi sighed. “Of course you didn’t. Sorry, it’s been a tough few months for us, and I got so worried when I saw you getting hurt…”

“What do you mean with ‘it’s been a tough few months’? Has something happened?”

It was quiet for a while. “Yes. You could say that.”

Ed felt he never knew what to say in a situation like this.

“Uh, I’m sorry. Do you… want to talk about it?”

“I guess you deserve to know. You know how Sig and I have tried to get pregnant ever since we got married?”

“Yeah, you have mentioned it…”

“Well, I finally did get pregnant about 4-5 months ago…”

“What? How come you never told us that?” Ed asked, both surprised and confused. Hadn’t Izumi just said something was wrong?

“Because we lost the baby, Ed,” she replied with a shaky voice, even though she was trying her best to keep her cool. “I was about two months pregnant when it happened… And when the doctor did some tests on me afterwards, she said it would be dangerous to try again. So, we won’t…”

Ed knew being a mother had been a lifelong dream of his old teacher, and even though he couldn’t see her, he thought he could hear the pain in her voice. “Teacher, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry for things that are out of your control!” she said surprisingly harshly, and Ed thought she might have smacked him had she been in the same room with him. Thankfully, she wasn’t. But that didn’t make him any less worried for her.

“How… are you feeling?” he asked cautiously once he was fairly sure she wouldn’t explode again.

“Been better, that’s for sure. But we just have to accept this is what was meant to happen. I have sort of gotten used to the thought by now.”

“Are going to try adoption?” Ed asked, trying to think of a safer topic to talk about.

“I’m not sure. I think… the wound is still too open.”

“Believe me, I understand,” Ed said suddenly, to Izumi’s surprise. She didn’t know about Nina yet.

“What do you mean?" Izumi asked. "You haven’t lost a child, have you?”

“No, I haven’t;" Ed said quietly. "But I lost someone who was almost like a little sister to me, in the worst possible way. I guess... that hit me so hard it’s partially the reason why I haven’t really…”

“Been in contact with us?" Izumi finished for him, getting angry again. "You idiot! Keeping all that inside you is the worst thing you could do to yourself! Haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Y-you h-have, teacher!” Ed stuttered.

It was silent for a while again, before Izumi said: “Well, I’m glad you came out about it, now.”

A sudden thought occurred to Ed: “Can I ask you something, teacher?”

“Edward, I haven’t been your teacher for several years. You can stop calling me that. I’m Izumi.”

“OK, Izumi, can I ask you something?”

“I think you already did.”

“Whatever… Uh, so, after the… loss, was it difficult for you to communicate with Sig? You guys are alright, right?”

Izumi seemed to consider her answer for a moment before saying: “I admit that for a few weeks I just wanted to hide from him, because I was so ashamed of myself and felt guilty for the miscarriage, but he dragged me out of my room and said he wouldn’t allow me to blame myself for it. It opened my eyes to see that he really loved me no matter what, and eventually we managed to talk things through and are now better than ever. If there’s something I learned from that experience, it’s that I am so lucky to have found someone who has seen me on my bad day but is there to support me no matter what. If you ever find someone like that… don’t let them go.”

Winry’s face flashed in front of Ed’s eyes once Izumi said that. Wasn’t that exactly what she had done? She knew about his worst moments and was nothing but supportive even though he had acted stupidly. And if Ed was honest? Even though the leg was a pain and having to watch the others play was frustrating, he had also had some of his best moments in a long, long while during the Olympics. And he had Winry to thank for that.

“Oh. Thank you, Izumi.”

“For what?” She asked with confusion. In her opinion, she hadn't done anything.

“I think I finally know what I should do," Ed stated, giving the phone a relieved grin.

“I know a lot of things, but I don’t understand what you are talking about now,” Izumi noted, and Ed was sure she was rolling her eyes at him on the other side of the line.

“It’s a long story… Or maybe not that long… I met this girl a few weeks ago, and… we have had our fair share of problems, but I finally know what I want to do with this… situation.”

“You met a girl?" Izumi asked, her voice - in Ed's opinion - too happily surprised. "A girl as in a girlfriend? My tiny student really is growing up!”

“I’m not tiny!" came out of Ed's mouth instantly. "And don’t… say… that!”

“So, tell me all about her! Who is she? Is she an athlete? Is she smart? How did you meet?”

“Tea… Izumi, calm down. We met at the figure skating arena, and…”

The call got surprisingly long, with Ed describing what had happened at the Olympics (leaving the more private things like the spending night together out, though, because he felt those belonged to him and Winry only) and Izumi asking questions, but once they were finished, Ed felt he was finally seeing clearly. Now, all he needed to do was to wait until Winry was ready to see him again…


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figure skating individual contest, part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are finally starting to get serious! @roboticrainboots, I was thinking about you when I was editing a certain part of this chapter. I hope you'll like it ;) Thank you for all the lovely comments, they always make my days!!

“Brother, you seem kinda anxious,” Al noted as the two of them were approaching the figure skating arena. It was finally the day of Winry’s individual short program, and like promised, Ed was taking Al to see the competition. Which of the brothers was more nervous (about two very different things), was up for debate.

“I do not! You’re the one who hasn’t shut up about Mei Chang the entire morning! And before you ask, I don’t think we should interrupt her today; I bet she is just as focused on the competition as Winry is.”

“Since when are you the voice of reason of the two of us?” Al frowned at his brother, looking genuinely surprised. “Are you really the same person who left home two weeks ago?”

“I… of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?” Ed asked nearly aggressively, his stuttering and the red blotches on his cheeks betraying him.

“I don’t know, maybe because you’re in looooove,” Al stressed the last word as annoyingly as possible. “And you know what they say about love? They say it changes people.”

“I… just… Listen, can we just go inside now? It’s fucking cold out here.” The glare Ed shot at Al would have scared someone who wasn’t as familiar with him as Al was. He didn’t let the topic go that easily.

“We can, but you can’t deny what I just said.”

“You can’t deny a fist on your face soon. The automail one.” Ed lifted his right hand threateningly.

Al snorted. “You know, that sounds more like the Edward I know.”

Ed punched Al on the shoulder, although just lightly, but the younger brother didn’t even seem to notice. He stopped on his tracks, his gaze on a person who had just come out from the arena through the side door only the competitors and staff were allowed to use. She had dark, braided hair and a red (Xing’s national color) coat covering her short, pink dress in which she was supposed to perform. She seemed to be on her way for a quick warm-up jog, not noticing the two golden haired boys near her. When she started running, a small bow fell from her dress, and Al decided to yell after her.

“Ex-excuse me, miss, you just dropped something!”

She turned to look at the speaker and noticed the bow on the ground, picking it up before turning her attention fully to the two quite fascinating looking boys.

“Oh! Thank you so much!” She had an unreadable expression on her face for a moment, as she kept taking them in. “Do I… know you from somewhere?

“I don’t think so,” Al answered.

“Wait a second…” She finally realized why they looked so familiar, and Ed swore she had stars in her eyes when she turned to ask Al: “Oh my god, are you Edward Elric? This is such an honor…”

Al just stared at her awkwardly for a moment, not knowing what he should tell her. Finally, he decided to go for the truth: “Sorry, I believe you got us mixed… I’m Alphonse Elric, and this is my brother Edward.” He pointed at his shorter older brother. The girl eyed Ed suspiciously; admittedly, he didn’t look his best at that moment. Everything about him screamed he had just been in a fight; he had small bruises on his face, his leg was in a cast, his untied hair was sticking to various directions, and the worn leather jacket he had chosen to wear to avoid being associated with team Amestris was hazily thrown around his shoulders.

“Re-really?” she asked, “I… always had a different kind of picture of you in my head…”

Ed grumbled something incoherent under his breath, making Al laugh and say: “Don’t mind him. He’s always been like that. I… I’m gonna assume that you are Mei Chang, aren’t you?” he asked, suddenly more shyly.

“Yes, that’s me,” she admitted. “How did you know?”

“I may have watched your performances on TV…” Al answered, blushing just slightly.

“That’s funny because I’ve heard a whole lot about you! My brother’s the captain of team Xing so he talks about hockey and different hockey players a lot…” She shook her head and continued: “Honestly, I can’t believe I ran into the Elric brothers right before my competition! Are you going to watch it?”

“Yes, actually! Well, Ed here is going there to see his girlfriend” (Ed’s glare towards Al was nearly deathly this time) “but I'm really looking forward to seeing your performance!” Al said smoothly.

“Oh, really? So, Mr. Alphonse.” Mei seemed to have lost the last of her interest in Ed with the g-word, but instead she casted Al a curious look when she asked: “Are you the older brother?”

Ed, who understood she was referring to his height, had almost reached his boiling point and asked angrily: “What makes you think that?”  
Al immediately stepped in: “I think my brother here is simply trying to tell that he’s the older one. But that doesn’t matter, I got the looks and the wits.”

Mei giggled at Al’s joke. “Alphonse, you’re too much.”

“Pffft.” Al waved it off.

May checked her watch and noted: “Hey, I should be going, but do you think we could continue this conversation maybe once my competition is over?”

“Su-sure!” Al replied, flustered and surprised by the fact that he had managed to attract this girl’s interest so quickly. “Where should we meet? Do you know any good cafes or restaurants here?”

“I know some! But I really need to go now so let’s text later, OK?” She slipped a piece of paper with her phone number into Al’s hand. “See you soon!”

“See you!”

“How… did you do that?” Ed asked when Mei was out of hearing distance, looking beyond shocked.

“Oh brother, some people just have the skill. And you know, politeness can take you far.”

Ed just rolled his eyes and started heading towards the front doors of the figure skating arena.

…

Winry was waiting for her turn in her dressing room. Even though she was nervous, a weird kind of confidence was surging through her, making her feel less awful. After all, this time she was only responsible for her own performance, and no matter what happened, at least it’d be over after this competition. Weirdly enough, one part of her was very eager to find out what would happen after that… And she realized she felt that way because she’d finally get to know what was going to happen to her and Ed.

Ed. She wasn’t 100% sure if she had done the right thing by asking for some space, because after the practices, when she was alone in her room, her thoughts started drifting towards unwanted direction. But she tried to reason that he needed that space just as much as she did, because admittedly things between them had progressed fast. Emotionally, at least. Physically… well, she supposed sharing a bed was already something. Either way, it was probably good for him to have some thinking time.

She allowed her thoughts to drift for one more second, wishing she’d see the brothers in the audience, before someone announced that it would be her turn soon. She closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, stretched her back and arms and started walking towards the rink. There was a mirror on her way, and this time, she could see the swan she was supposed to be for this performance more clearly. As she observed her reflection for a moment, she realized the white dress or the feathers in her hair didn’t do it, it was her facial expression.

The previous skater got her points, and Winry started gliding on the ice. There were so many people watching her that she couldn’t spot the two golden haired boys, but she trusted they were there. She didn't have time to think about them; it was time to convince everyone who was watching her that she was worth an Olympic medal.

Thankfully, the routine was so familiar to her that even her nervousness couldn’t make her forget it. Her first element was the layback spin. Winry started pretty carefully, having just enough speed to keep the spin up long enough to not lose points. In the story she had built around this routine, it was supposed to represent all the confusion the swan felt when she realized she didn’t belong to the group she was in. After that she took her first steps in the outside world, shaky and insecure. The step sequence had always been her favorite part, because it allowed her to express the vulnerability she herself had felt after her parents’ death, a feeling that was difficult to express orally.

Next came the difficult triple lutz – triple loop combination, and she knew that if she nailed it, she’d be a strong medal contender. The landing wasn’t as perfect as she had hoped but at least she had done everything she was supposed to do and didn’t think she’d lose a lot of points for it. After that, double axel. That was the part she was particularly nervous about because of the outcome last time. She knew a double axel was usually no problem for her, but… what if her foot started hurting again? She had another performance already the next day and she couldn’t afford to get injured…

She sighed of relief (hoping it wasn’t too obvious, though, because even her facial expressions mattered in a tough competition like this) when she managed to land safely, and the foot didn’t react to it in any way. Now she had gone through the hardships the swan of her story experienced, and the rest of her routine would be easier. The last jumps, another short step sequence, and two different spins (about which she was notably more confident than about the first one) to finish the routine. Her smile was wide and genuine when she bowed and curtsied to the audience. Suddenly, she thought she saw a tiny bit of gold in the audience, not too far from her, her smile widening even more. She was out of breath and her ears were ringing a bit, but that didn’t matter at the moment.

She knew she had definitely done better than last time.

Would it be enough, though? That she couldn’t say yet, because some of her toughest competitors were yet to skate, and a lot would naturally depend on her free program as well.

Garfiel came to her when she left the rink and hugged her.

“You nailed it, girl! I’m sure you’ll win this!”

“Uh, thanks,” Winry said modestly, “but I wouldn’t cheer too much yet. We don’t even know my points!”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve seen you perform thousands of times and I know that was one of your best ones yet. If the judges didn’t see that… they are blind.”

Winry just smiled as Garfiel guided her to the seats where they would listen to the point announcement.

…

“Aand Winry Rockbell’s points are… 81,95!”

“Is that good? Is that good? Al, is that good?” a very nervous young man in the audience asked his brother as the audience around them was roaring excitedly.

“Hell yes it is! There are only a couple of skaters in this group who can come anywhere near that amount of points,” Al answered, happy about Winry’s success.

“In that case…” Ed jumped from his seat and yelled: “FUCK YES! THAT’S MY GIRL!”

“Ed, you might want to calm down a bit,” Al reminded him. “Unless you want that reporter to find you again…”

“If she wins this entire thing, I don’t care to whom I’ll be telling how awesome my girlfriend is.”

“Ed. Girlfriend?”

Ed’s eyes widened when he realized what he had just said, but there was no point in denying it anymore.

“Um… I am… kinda… planning to ask her once this thing is over…”

“That’s awesome! I’m so happy you’ve finally come to your senses!” Al exclaimed, getting a sour look from Ed.

“I wish we could go to celebrate with her,” Ed said much more to himself than to Al, but Al tried to cool him down:

“This competition isn’t over yet. Mei’s pretty good, you know.”

…

Everyone’s points were announced, and it turned out Winry finished the short program in the second place. Lan Fan from Xing had bested her with 0,10 points, and Mei Chang was only 0,2 points behind her. Paninya was fourth with 78 points and Rose wasn’t far behind either. Overall, Winry was content because she knew she had done her best, and everything was still up in the air; 0,10 points was nothing in the free program event where more points were given. When she left the arena, she felt happier than she had in a while. But that was only until she saw a conflicting view in front of her.

Ed was talking with one of her rivals.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figure skating individual competition, part two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! A chapter I've been dying to share with everyone since forever :') I won't say much more about it, just the usual: I hope you guys enjoy, and please, please, pleaaase leave me a comment bc I really really want to know how you guys feel about this chapter.

Winry closed her eyes for a moment and peeked through the glass door again. Was she really seeing correctly? Ed? Talking with someone who looked a lot like Mei Chang? Alone, without Al? What was he doing with her? There was no mistaking him, though; she could clearly see his long golden mane, the crutches in his hands and the cast in his left leg.

She knew they hadn’t seen her yet and tried to figure out how to get out of the arena without being noticed. If she just marched out there and asked what was going on, she would probably get to hear a bunch of lies, making the situation even worse. Still, she couldn’t just wait and stand behind the door either; people were coming in and out, and she’d get caught staring. Finally, she decided to use another exit on the other side of the arena, casting one last look towards the glass door before biting her lip and turning away.

Had Winry stayed 10 seconds longer, she would have seen Al joining Ed and Mei, giving Mei something as he arrived. Not long after, the group separated, Ed leaving towards the hotel, Al and Mei towards a restaurant. But she didn’t see any of that, so her mind was racing 120 km/hour as she took the longer route to another exit.

One, a small part of her was yelling loud curses in her head, but the rational part tried to convince her that what she had just seen meant nothing. Maybe Ed had just been waiting to see her and accidentally bumped into Mei. Winry knew Mei well enough to know she was very familiar with hockey, so maybe she had recognized Ed and wanted to introduce herself. Besides, after the sweet, private moments in her room, would Ed really just ignore all that? That didn’t seem like something he would do.

Winry realized that if she was going to make this, what could be a beginning of a meaningful relationship, work, she had to trust him. And in the end, nothing about the meeting she had witnessed had suggested anything more than a friendly encounter. But still, where had Al been? And why had Mei smiled so widely at Ed? And why did all of this have to happen now that she was supposed to focus on her competition and they were going to leave to their home country in only a few days?

When Winry got back into her hotel room, she decided to do what best calmed down her mind; drawing blueprints for her next mechanical project. When she began drawing, she had no idea what she wanted to make, but soon the sketch started to become clearer; it resembled an arm. At first she thought she was unconsciously drawing the exact copy of Ed’s automail arm, but under closer inspection she realized it looked different. It looked more like the person whom she was imagining using it; a flame symbol decorated the top plate, reminding her of his fierce nature. Even though the material she wanted to use for this automail was lighter than the one he was now using, the layers it had made it stronger. She had to admit, she quite liked how it ended up looking.

Just when she was putting away her pencils and erasers, her phone started ringing.

“Granny! Hi! How are you doing?” Winry had been thinking about her grandmother quite a lot for the past few days, and hearing her familiar voice immediately made her feel better.

“I’m doing just fine, dear. But I must say, I am slightly surprised you haven’t called me since the team event. I hope everything’s fine there, though, because it’s not like you to ignore your grandmother.”

“E-everything’s alright! I hope you saw my performance today. Only 0,10 points from the lead!”

“I saw it!" Pinako Rockbell exclaimed. "You looked wonderful out there. But you don’t sound very convincing, I hope it really is alright.”

“It’s… a long story. Or maybe not so long but it's complicated..." Winry bit her lip, hesitating a little before adding: "Granny, I… like someone.”

“Really?" Pinako asked, and even though Winry couldn't see her, she imagined her eyebrows shooting up. "Now that’s a surprise. I thought you are so into your sport you don’t have time for anything else.”

“Yeah… I kinda thought so too," Winry admitted. "So, do you remember Edward Elric from Resembool? Our ex neighbor?”

“Of course I do!" You guys were always at it, fighting with each other all the time, but if someone dared to say a bad word about you, he was always there to defend you.” Pinako smiled fondly at her memory. “Have you seen him there? Doesn’t he play hockey these days?”

“Yes, I have, and he does… You see… He’s kinda the person I like. And I think he likes me too.” Winry was thankful her grandmother couldn't see the red blotches on her cheeks in that moment. 

“Oh! Well, if he’s anything like his parents, I’m sure he’s a decent person," Pinako noted.

“He is… Only, today I saw him talking with my rival and… I don’t know what to think about it. I mean, it probably was nothing, but… I got jealous.”

“If he is in his right mind, he doesn’t even look at anyone else when he could have my granddaughter. Don’t worry, Winry. If that bothers you, why don’t you just ask him?”

“I already had an opportunity, but I chickened… And I can’t ask him now because the last time we saw each other, I told him we should keep some distance between us until my competition is over.”

“You have put yourself in quite a situation. But my advice is that just talk with him. That way you’ll know what exactly happened.”

“Right. Thanks, granny.”

“No problem.”

After saying her worries aloud, Winry realized how silly they must have sounded. After all, it wasn’t like Ed wasn’t allowed to talk with other girls. That’s why she decided to change the topic: “Hey, listen! I just drew some blueprints for an automail and I’d like you to take a look at it. I’ll send you a photo and you can then tell me your opinion on it!”

The grandmother and granddaughter spent the rest of the evening discussing Winry’s automail, Pinako giving Winry some advice and improvement suggestions and Winry doing the necessary changes. By the end of the evening, she was feeling like herself again, and was already imagining how Ed would react when she’d show him the blueprints.

…

“Next up, performing her free program, Winry Rockbell!”

Winry inhaled and exhaled deeply and shook her limbs to warm the muscles up before finally stepping on the ice. She had thought her previous performances would have calmed her nerves a bit, but as she was waiting for the music to start playing, she realized that this was every bit as hard as it had been earlier. Maybe even harder in a certain sense. The reason for that was sitting in the stands, or at least she assumed he did. For some reason, knowing that he was watching, made this performance more personal.

When Garfiel, who usually made Winry’s choreographies, had suggested her free program would have a romantic theme, Winry hadn’t liked the idea. Romantic love had always been a foreign area to her, and she had never even officially dated anyone even though the reason for that wasn’t the lack of interested people. It was the lack of interesting people. The few times she had been on dates, she had noticed the other person was on a totally different wave length from her, not caring about the same things she did, or asking her out simply because they had recognized her from TV. Sometimes she had wondered if there was something wrong with her, or if she was simply an a-sexual, but she hadn’t gotten answers to her questions until she arrived in the Olympic venue.

Was it love she was feeling towards Ed? Winry had always been one to think that real love didn’t strike anyone that fast, but when she had told Ed she was falling for him, she had meant it. She might not be quite there yet, but she was on her way. The thought of getting to spend more time with him and learn to know him even better excited her. On the other hand, she had felt jealous when she saw Ed with Mei, which was an emotion only familiar to her from her childhood when she had seen her classmates getting hugs and kisses from their parents, while she had only had her grandmother. She already knew Ed could be a tough person to handle on his worst days, but somehow, she believed the good days would win them 100-0. If he gave her a chance…

Because of all this, she felt she understood the character she was acting in her performance a lot better now. Earlier, she had often gotten critique for performing the elements cleanly but lacking in the emotion department. The audience would see a robot doing what she was supposed to do, not having any emotional connection with the performance. Now, she wished that she could use her recent experiences to build a believable story that did move something in the audience’s hearts.

She quickly tested that her hair and the bright red dress with a lot of glitter on it (Garfiel’s idea) were where they were supposed to be and finally heard the first notes of the romantic song starting to play, meaning it was go-time.

The first element in her free program was a triple Lutz – triple toe loop combination. She managed to land it cleanly, but was worried her body language was screaming she didn’t know what to do… If only she’d get the three first jump elements out of the way, then she could breathe a bit. The step sequences and spins had always been more of her thing.

The music got more dramatic, and that was her cue for double Axel. Done! And she felt she would have had enough speed to keep on rotating but decided to not risk it this time. There would be a time and place for a surprise factor later on…

Then came the final jumps of the first half of her performance, a triple Salchow – triple toe loop combination. Unfortunately, Winry had gotten a bit too confident after the double Axel, and she slipped a bit between the jumps, having to cut the rotation short and making it only double toe loop. Not a big loss, considering she still hadn’t fallen, but it still bummed her for a moment.

She didn’t have time to get stuck on that one slight slip, though, because she already needed to start focusing on the first spin. It was successful, and finally she managed to make herself smile a bit as she moved onto the step sequence. Even though step sequences had usually been her favorite part of her programs, she found this particular one challenging because she was supposed to express the happiness of having met someone special. Now she understood that emotion better, though, and the audience oohed and aahed with excitement as they watched her move swiftly, the smile coming from her heart instead of being forced.

…

“How the hell did she do that?” Ed asked as Al and he were watching Winry performing a triple flip – double toe loop – double loop combination. To Ed even one jump was amazing, to perform 3 of them in a row was beyond his understanding.

“It’s called routine, brother, she has practiced that for years,” Al stated. It was really amusing to watch how into Ed could get into this sport he knew nothing about, all because of that young woman who was currently gliding on the ice. If he was honest, Ed was the last person he would have expected to see in such a situation, but it was a nice change, and he could see it was good for his brother.

Ed yelled proudly when he saw Winry perform another jump, triple Lutz this time, then turned to look at Al briefly:

“Do you think she has a chance of winning this?”

“It is going well, I don’t see why not. But the competition is tough.”

“Right.”

“Hold on a sec.” Al held his breath for a moment when Winry was in the air again. “That isn’t… yup, it is! Triple Axel!”

Ed didn’t really know what a triple Axel was, or how it differed from the other jumps (he made a mental note to learn more about it later), but it must have been something awesome because the entire audience around him was roaring with excitement.

“W-what?” he asked.

“Brother, you really should do some studying on figure skating… Only a few female skaters have managed to land it successfully in a competition. She did it in the team event here, but I believe that’s when she got hurt… But based on her reactions there were no issues this time! Now she REALLY has a chance of winning!”

Ed focused his attention on Winry’s facial expressions and noticed that she really did seem like a huge weight had fallen from her shoulders as she was performing a choreographic sequence. In fact, her expression looked a lot like the one he had only seen on her face when they had been alone in her room. But why would she…

“Uh, Al? What do you think this performance is about?” he asked suddenly.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s a love story, she meets someone and shows her love for that person.”

“Really?” Ed's mouth formed a huge 'O'.

“Definitely.”

Ed felt a blush spreading on his face as he let Al’s words sink in. Suddenly focusing on the performance felt a bit harder. He did see her jump one last time (Al did say the jump’s name but he missed it) and do the spin combination that finished the routine, but his mind was elsewhere. He would have to tell her about his decision soon.

…

“Congratulations, dear, that was a fantastic performance! I am so proud of you! And that triple Axel? Only you would have had guts to do that again after what happened the last time! But the risk was worth it!”

“Thank you, Garfiel!” Winry said as she hugged her coach. “I felt… I needed to prove myself I could do it even though I would have probably done just fine even with a double Axel… “

“To me it looked like you also did a lot better job portraying the emotions of your character… Is there any specific reason for that?”

“Uhh… nothing you need to know right now… I’ll tell you some other time,” Winry answered awkwardly.

Winry barely had time to take a breath after pulling away from Garfiel when two new sets of arms surrounded her.

“If that isn’t a gold winning performance, I don’t know what is!” Paninya squeeled and Rosé agreed with her.

“Oh, come on, guys, you are not here to celebrate me, you are my rivals!” Winry scolded them. “Now, if you don’t go back to your preparations, I’m gonna kick your asses. And Garfiel, we need to go, they are gonna announce the points any minute now.”

They sat down on their seats, and sure enough, only a few moments later the announcer yelled:

“And Winry Rockbell’s points are… 150,15! Together with the short program, that makes 232,10 points! What an astounding performance! That is her personal best!”

“Wow…” was all Winry could say.

“Winry, my dear… I think a new champion has risen.” Garfiel said next to her.

…

Paninya and Rosé’s turns were soon after, and both succeeded well with their performances. Paninya got her personal best score and Rosé got her seasonal best as well. The two of them were already ready to celebrate Winry’s victory when it was Mei Chang’s turn, and they held their breaths (probably more nervous than Winry herself) as she performed. The audience reacted loudly to her elements and it was clear everything was going according to Mei’s plan.

A few minutes later, her points were announced: 148,5. Together with the short program, that wasn’t enough to top Winry. The blonde woman couldn’t help but smile a bit, remembering what she had seen the day before. This also meant Winry really had a chance of winning the entire competition.

The last skater of the night, and Winry’s biggest challenger, was Lan Fan from Xing. She had gotten just slightly better points than Winry in the short program, but she was known to shine in her free programs, so despite Winry’s amazing points, nothing had been decided yet.

As expected, she performed her elements flawlessly, but her jumps were slightly easier than Winry’s, and at least in Garfiel’s opinion she seemed to lack the charm Winry had had on the ice. Winry watched the performance in the dressing room with the other girls, but when she met with Garfiel afterwards, she found him biting his fingernails nervously.

Winry wasn’t sure what she was feeling at that moment. The biggest part of her was relieved it was over; no matter what would happen, she already knew she had done her best and would go home with a medal. However, there was a reason why she was a professional athlete; she did have the competitive side in her, and that side tried to argue with the rational side that said she could be proud of herself, either way. A silver would be a disappointment after such a performance.

Winry’s heart was beating fast when Garfiel took her hand as the announcer started to speak.

“Lan Fan’s points are: 149,10! That means she wins the silver medal, winning her country woman Mei Chang by a point. Our Olympic gold medal winner is… Winry Rockbell from Amestris!!!”

…

“Ed, you gotta go!” Al tried to get him to leave the arena before the rest of the audience would.

“What, I want to congratulate her! Dammit, Al! This is the biggest moment of her career so far and you are telling me to leave?!”

“I mean, she’s gonna have a party, and you can’t go there looking like that! Brother, please!”

“Fine. But if you see her, you’ll tell her that I’ll see her soon, right?”

“Of course! Just go now.”

…

She really was the Olympic champion. When the information sunk in, it seemed like her brain just automatically turned off and she could remember only bits and pieces of what happened afterwards.

There were a lot of hugs. Garfiel, waiting for the points next to her, was obviously the first one to hug her. Rosé, Paninya and Gracia were all waiting for her by the rinkside, giving her quick, tight hugs before she had to go back to the ice to accept her reward. When she joined the other medalists on the ice, they hugged her too, and especially Mei seemed really enthusiastic and happy for her, making Winry a bit confused. Was there something going on she didn’t know about? In that moment, she only wished she could find the person she wanted to hug the most, but scanning the audience with her eyes, she couldn’t find him. One would have thought it would be easy to spot the two golden haired men even in a big crowd, and she knew for fact they had promised to be there, but for some reason she couldn’t find them.

She accepted the flowers and the plush she was given (the actual medal would be given the next day in a special ceremony outside the arena) and after listening to the national anthem of Amestris, skating a few rounds and thanking the audience, she tried to get into the dressing room to change into something more comfortable. That turned out to be difficult though, with all the passing people wanting to congratulate her and get her first comments, and it took her at least 15 minutes to finally get into her destination. By that time she started to feel a bit inpatient, despite the happy occasion.

“You haven’t possibly seen Ed and his brother anywhere?” Winry asked her figure skating team that was already starting the party in the dressing room, popping a bottle of champagne that someone had hidden into the locker.

“No, not a glimpse,” Paninya and Rose answered in unison. Winry started getting anxious. This was such a huge moment for her, and she really wanted all her favorite people to be around.

It took a while before she could leave anywhere because glasses needed to be emptied, speeches given and songs sung. Paninya even threatened to throw Winry into the cold shower like was the habit in the hockey world, but fortunately for Winry, she managed to talk her out of it. Eventually, she managed to sneak out with the excuse that she needed to go back into her hotel room because she had left her party dress there.

Before she would do that, though, she would find out where the hell Edward was. He hadn’t even answered her calls while the other girls had taken Garfiel into the cold shower instead of her. Briefly, she wondered if that meeting with Mei had something to do with this, but quickly pushed that thought aside. Now was not the time for that.

When she got into the hotel hallway that Amestris’ athletes shared, she debated for a long while if she should go and change like she was supposed to, or if she should just march into Ed’s room and let him hear it if he happened to be there. She chose the latter.

“Edward Elric! If you are there, get your ass out right now!” she nearly yelled as she banged his door. She wasn’t actually expecting anyone to be there, so when she heard the sound of the crutches from inside the room, her eyes widened in embarrassment.

“Hi?” Ed opened the door, revealing the black suit and a red tie he was wearing. Winry looked at his outfit with confusion.

“Are you going somewhere?” she asked, guessing it was too much to ask him to spend this important night with her.

“Aren’t you?” Ed took in the tiny red figure skating dress she was still wearing. Why did she have to look so good in it, he growled in his mind. “Shouldn't you get dressed for your party?”

“What are you talking about?” Winry felt she understood less and less about what was going on.

“That you and I are gonna go to your party, what else would I be talking about?”

“I thought… I thought…” Winry couldn’t form a full sentence. He had been thinking about her after all.

“What?” Ed asked, equally confused.

“That you had forgotten. Or didn’t want to go. Or had other plans…” After saying that, Winry found herself suddenly interested in the sequins of her dress.

“And why would you think that?” Ed frowned. He didn’t understand why Winry was acting so weirdly all of a sudden.

“Because I didn’t see you at the arena! And you didn’t answer to my call! And I saw you hanging out with Mei Chang the other day!” she blurted without thinking.

Finally Ed understood what the issue was. She had thought he was ignoring her. "Winry, there’s a good explanation to all of those things. I left the arena early because when it became clear you would win, Al forced me to come back here to clean up because apparently I couldn’t look like an emo at your party. I wouldn’t have wanted to leave. He also promised to let you know I would be waiting here. Which clearly he didn’t. And I didn’t hear your phone call because I was in the shower. And I definitely wasn’t with Mei because I wanted to, but because Al told me to wait with her while he was getting her some flowers or chocolate or who knows what unnecessary… They were gonna go out for a dinner, you see.”

“So… you’re saying all of that was just an unfortunate misunderstanding?”

“Yes, you silly.” Ed smiled at her.

“Great. Of course I would ruin my own party by overthinking things.” Winry sat down on Ed’s bed and covered her face with her hand with embarrassment.

“Hey, don’t be mad at yourself. You couldn’t have known.” Ed sat down next to Winry, setting his crutches down, and took her chin between his thumb and index finger and lifted it, so she was staring right in his eyes.

“But I…” She couldn’t finish her sentence because she noticed the expression on Ed’s face, and it nearly made her knees go weak. She had seen that fierce, determined look a couple of times before, all of them right before they had almost…

Only this time there wasn’t “almost”. Ed hesitated only one moment, deciding this was a now or never situation, and with his free hand he pulled her closer. He moved the hand that had been holding her chin behind her neck, while wondering how she would react to what he was about to do. Winry didn’t have time to close her eyes before he pressed his lips against hers, a bit sloppily but firmly, soon finding the right angle to get best access to her lips. Winry couldn’t help but smile into the kiss when her brain finally registered what was happening. He really was kissing her.

All too fast, he pulled away, his heart pounding faster than in a hockey game and his cheeks adorably red. Winry thought she couldn’t have looked much calmer herself. She had imagined this situation so many times in her head, but now that it finally happened, she couldn’t nearly believe it. From that little preview she knew she wanted that to happen again. And last a lot longer.

Finally, her brain recovered enough to be able to form full sentences:

“Hold on. Ed, would you care to explain what this means? Didn’t you say the other day you had promised…”

“Shhh, just listen. I can’t… I can’t promise it’s always gonna be an easy road, but… I want to try.” Winry looked at him expectantly, so he continued: “You have made me see I don’t have to do this alone, and I really owe you a lot for that. You have made me feel happy even though normally I wouldn’t even be able to get out of my bed in this situation.” Winry knew he was referring to his broken leg and the tournament that had ended too early for him. “So that’s really amazing. You just seem to have that weird power. You know, you deserve to be happy, and I… I want to be someone who makes you happy. Equivalent exchange, right?”

“Ed!” she squealed and hugged him so forcefully he almost fell from the bed.

“So, what do you say? Do you want to give me a shot?” he asked nervously.

“Yes, you idiot!”

This time it was her turn to initiate the kiss. It was much longer than the first one, and Ed even allowed his hand to wander on the backside of Winry’s thin dress, feeling the smooth material and causing chills in Winry’s core.

“By the way… Congratulations,” he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers.

“For what?” Winry had nearly forgotten what had happened only a little while ago.

“For winning the Olympic gold, dummy. My girlfriend is the world’s best figure skater!” Ed exclaimed proudly.

“Oh… thank you.” Winry blushed and pecked his lips once more.

“So… Will you get your dress changed?” Ed asked with much more confidence when they pulled apart.

“Yes… But if you think I’ll let you watch just because you’re my boyfriend now… well, I dare you to try.”

“You’re feisty. I like that.” Ed snorted and Winry threw a pillow at him.

Ed stayed nicely in his room while Winry went to change, but the whole time both of them had huge smiles on their faces. Somehow, Winry had a feeling she had just won something far more valuable than an Olympic gold.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens before the party starts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the 1 year anniversary of this fic (about which my tumblr peeps have surely heard enough) so in honor of that, here's an update for you guys too :) Thanks again for the comments, they make my days like nothing else :)

Winry knocked on Ed’s door again about 15 minutes after leaving the room. Now she was wearing an azure blue, knee length, v-neck dress that matched her eyes, and equally blue ballerinas. Her hair was down (Winry explained the bun had felt really uncomfortable) but curled, and her smile wider than Ed had seen during the entire time they had spent together. When Ed opened the door for her, she spun around a few times like she had earlier on the ice, caught the hem of her dress and curtsied to him playfully.

“So? What do you think?” she asked curiously and spread her arms wider, so he could get a better look at the dress. “This is suitable for tonight, right?”

Ed couldn’t speak for a couple of moments. “Y-yeah! Of course! It looks… it looks great!”

“Aw, thank you. You know, you don’t look bad yourself.” Winry smirked and tugged at his ponytail playfully. “This matches the medal I’ll get, by the way.”

“Oh? Good thing I didn’t dye it silver then. Once my teammates almost made me do it.”

“Oh, poor you… Well, shall we go? The others are probably waiting already.”

Since Ed was using his crutches, they couldn’t walk hand in hand, but Winry hooked her arm with his. As they made their way to the cab stop, she realized: soon everyone would know about their new relationship status. She got slightly nervous about how Ed would feel about her figure skating friends’ reactions. Or… simply making it public. Once it was out in the air, there would be no going back. But he had said he would do anything he wasn’t sure about so she reasoned that she shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

“You’re suddenly being quiet,” Ed noted suddenly. “Is everything OK?”

“Of course it is! It’s just… this all is almost too good to be true. Am I… am I really the Olympic champion? Are we… are we really dating now?”

“Why would you even ask that?” Ed growled. “Your performance was awesome! And if you need more convincing on that other matter… I made my decision and I won’t change it easily. I’d be lying if I claimed that one part of me still isn’t screaming of horror when I think about myself dating… but some things are worth it.”

Winry had to blink a couple of times so she wouldn’t start crying right then and there. “You know, you are actually much sweeter than you give yourself credit for… Thank you. I guess… I’m just not used to feeling this happy… Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for everything I have, which is probably more than I’ve let you to understand, but… ever since my parents died, I’ve felt… like I am missing something. But that feeling has been slowly fading lately.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Can you guess if there are any specific reasons for that?” Winry took his face between her hands, so he would have to look directly at her.

“How would I know? I can’t read your thoughts,” Ed asked, pretending to be oblivious even though he had gotten the hint.

“Idiot,” Winry sighed and rolled her eyes. “It’s you, of course.”

“Oh.” For a while Ed didn’t know what else to say, until: “Can I ask you one question?”

“Sure?”

“Why do you like me?” He was blushing again, hoping that one day he’d manage to speak to her normally without looking like a dork. “If I’m honest, I don’t really understand it.”

“If you don’t understand it, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.” Winry pouted at him like the question had offended her. “Relax,” she added finally, smiling at him softly. “There are a lot of reasons. In the beginning, I guess I was simply curious because you were my childhood friend, so I wanted to see how time has treated you. We had fun talking with each other and I felt comfortable with you when we spent time together. Admittedly…” Her hand briefly stroked the sleeve of Ed’s coat under which the automail was. “I was also fascinated by your automail when I heard about it.”

“You really are an automail geek…” Ed sighed and started hopping towards the cab stop again.

“Hey, automail geek and proud!” Winry exclaimed. “Anyway, I was only getting to my point. For some reason, I felt you were a person who would never hurt me. That is, until you ran away from our meeting without explaining what was wrong.”

“I’m still sorr…”

“It’s OK, we’ve been over it. I know you had your reasons. So, afterwards I talked with Riza and heard about how you had without hesitation gotten between your brother and that Envy, giving you that injury. Then I heard from Rosé you had woken her up and saved her career. And THEN,” she raised her voice when Ed looked like he was about to protest, her eyebrow shooting up as well, “After your tournament had ended in the worst possible way, I heard about your home situation and about the poor little girl, and I finally understood.”

“Understood what?” Ed asked, not seeing where Winry was going with her story.

“That you are one of the bravest people I’ve ever met.” She stopped in front of him, giving him that fierce, stubborn look that he had learned to admire. “Sure, you can be hotheaded sometimes, and I don’t like how you try to keep things to yourself, but I like you despite that. Your first instinct is to protect the people around you, even if it ends up hurting you. I understand now that you were only pushing me away to protect me. But I have some news for you: I don’t need you to do that for me. I can take care of myself just fine. What I want from you is simply you.”

Her demeanor softened as she continued: “I want to spend more time with you, and learn to know more about what you are under that icy, edgy hockey player cover…” (Ed snorted a bit at her description) “… and I want to…”

“Yeah?”

She poked his nose. “I’ll tell you the rest after you tell me why you like me. Equivalent exchange, isn’t that what our relationship is about?”

Ed got flustered. “Wha…”

“Yes?” She looked at him expectantly.

“Eh… I’m super bad at describing something like that, and you probably know it, but I guess I have to try.” He took a deep breath, and continued: “You… You’re damn strong. Much stronger than you probably realize. You know how I’ve dealt with the issues of my life, which isn’t exactly the healthiest way, but your way of coping is so different. Much more admirable.”

He had a brief thinking break, looking at anywhere but her, but she set her hand back on his cheek, looking at him with determination, and Ed finally found the words.

“You have always pushed yourself to be the best you can be in the thing you do. Proof? You’re an Olympic champion. You also want to become a great automail mechanic. You are open to new things and determined to learn. Besides, challenge is always a good thing in my opinion, and you have proven to be very good at challenging me. Maybe at some point we’ll be at each other’s throats, but I couldn’t be with someone who doesn’t have her own will.”

A short break again.

“… But you also have a different side. A s-sweet and soft. That part of you that organized me a birthday party and was there for me when I was having a hard time. Your support has… it has been a bigger help to me than you probably understand. Al would… Al would probably say that you have managed to melt my ice barrier. I… I think he’s right.”

“Good answer,” Winry lowered her voice, inching closer to him. “I suppose I could reveal what I was going to tell you earlier, but I’d prefer a physical demonstration.”

“Ok. This time I can take a hint,” Ed said and freed one of his hands from its crutch before sneaking it around her waste and pulling her for an open-mouthed kiss. She teased his tongue with hers while one of her hands searched for the back of his neck, and one freed his hair from its ponytail.

“Sorry…” she whispered when they pulled away to get some air. “I just wanted to test what it felt like.”

“’S OK…”

He kissed her again, this kiss being more charged than the previous ones. Had they not been outside in the cold, they might have continued much longer, but soon they remembered where they were, and waved a cab to take them to the party.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Party time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter after this, and then we have caught up with tumblr. I am at the same time sad and relieved that there are only a couple of more chapters to go: relieved because writing this fic has been a long journey and I'm excited to write more stuff that isn't related to this universe, and sad because let's be real, I really do love this universe. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and also, go give automail-freak-and-alchemy-freak on tumblr some love because she has drawn so much incredible art for this fic. Reviews are always loved :3

 

_^ Amazing cover art for this fic by the wonderful automail-freak-and-alchemy-freak on tumblr ♥_

“There she finally comes!” Paninya exclaimed when she saw Winry approaching her figure skating team in the otherwise quiet restaurant. “What took you so long? Oh!” She finally noticed Ed hopping towards them behind Winry, and a giant grin spread on her lips. “I wasn’t expecting you to have company!”

“Smirk what you want, Pan. I don’t care anymore. As a matter of fact, we have some news for you…” Winry fumbled with her hair nervously, as she was trying to figure out how to tell Paninya what had happened after her leaving the dressing room.

“Are you pregnant too?” Paninya asked her, eyeing Ed suspiciously. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you guys alone after that birthday party…”

“What, NO!” Winry panicked, worried how Ed would react to such implications. Even though Pan’s comment was just a joke, Ed had barely started to open up to her… Winry didn’t even want to think how he would feel about having kids. “We haven’t even… I mean, that’s a 0 per cent possibility… And don’t you think it’s a bit too early for that kind of announcements anyway?”

“I just wanted to see your reaction,” Paninya laughed. “Don’t mind me, I was just messing with you.”

“Oh, OK. So, the news is that… we…” She linked her arm with Ed’s. “… Have decided to become… exclusive?”

“And that’s what you were so nervous to announce?” Paninya looked annoyed. “I would have expected you to at least have gotten married secretly based on your expressions.” Her frown changed into a smile soon. “But that’s awesome! I knew it would happen sooner rather than later! In fact, Rosé, I think I won our bet.” She winked at her girlfriend who was standing next to her smugly.

“Bet, what bet?" Winry asked, faking anger. "Rosé, don’t tell me Pan made you make a bet on my relationship progression. I can expect that from you…” Winry glared at Paninya, “… But Rosé, you have always been the nice one.”

“I’m sorry, she made me!” Rosé winced, pushing Paninya in front of her to "protect" herself.

“Don’t worry, Rosé." Winry said, laughing at her reaction. "I just had to make you taste your own medicine. Anyway... let's celebrate now!"

…

“Hey Winry, why is your boyfriend moping at your party?” Paninya asked as Winry joined her at the bar to get a drink. She wasn’t wrong, Ed was scowling at his phone in an empty corner of the restaurant and mumbling something incoherent to himself.

“He just remembered that his team is playing in the quarter finals right now.” Winry sighed. “Not only are they probably angry at Ed for not showing up, but also they are losing by several goals so… it’s not looking too good.”

“You gotta give him something else to think about.” Paninya winked and made kissy lips to give Winry a hint.

“I’m not gonna make out with him in front of all these people!” Winry growled, her cheeks gaining some extra color. “Public display of affection isn’t our thing.”

“Whatever. Just do whatever you do to wrap him around your arm. Take him to dance or something.” Paninya shrugged.

“He can’t dance!" Winry reminded her. "He has a broken leg in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Just sway in the same spot or something.” Paninya suggested.

“I’ll just go talk to him,” Winry decided when she saw he wasn’t far from throwing his phone out of the window.

…

“Damnit!” Ed cursed loudly when Winry approached him. She didn’t even bother asking what had happened in the game; Ed's reactions spoke louder than words.

“I’m sorry, Ed," Winry tried to comfort him, patting his head. "I’m not gonna say ‘better luck next time’ because that won’t help anything, but maybe we should do something to take your thoughts away from that game. It’s my party, after all.”

“What do you have in mind?” Ed eyed her suspiciously. “I’m not gonna sing karaoke if that’s what you want to do. I’m not drunk enough.”

Winry put her arm around his shoulder and said: “No, you don’t have to sing, but I do want to dance. And I want to dance with you.”

“You have gone nuts, woman. How do you think I’m gonna dance with this leg?” he pointed at his cast.

“Just follow me. Or do you want me to call Al to dance with me instead?” Winry asked slyly. “Or, I suppose, there are other options in this restaurant too…” She pretended to get interested in the other male customers nearby.

“Let’s just go then!” Ed said fast and started hopping towards the dance floor.

When the couple found an empty spot, a few other dancers were eyeing Ed’s crutches suspiciously, but he decided to ignore it. “So… how are we gonna do this?” He asked.

“I think… if you can stand with just one crutch, you could use your hand to twirl me, and I’ll do the rest,” Winry suggested.

“Sounds doable,” Ed noted and left his right crutch against the wall. Winry took his metal hand that was covered with the usual white glove into hers and started moving around him. The song was fast, suitable for jive, which was one of Winry's favorite dances.

“I knew you could skate but I didn’t know you can dance too!” Ed commented at some point, impressed by how fast she could jump.

“A lot of figure skaters also take dancing classes because it certainly helps with the balance and everything.” Winry reminded him.

“Right. That makes sense,” Ed admitted and raised his arm so Winry could spin under it.

The longer the song continued, the more he lightened up too, finishing the dance by pulling Winry close to him and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“You were right, it was kinda fun! Maybe one day we can dance for real.”

“Is that a promise?” Winry asked. “Because if it is, I will remember it, I swear.”

“Maybe it is.” Ed grinned and turned to pick up his crutch.

…

A few hours later, Winry was looking for Ed who had disappeared while she had gone to the restroom, and finally found him on the balcony.

“There you are! I was a bit worried you might have left,” Winry said.

“Oh. I just needed a little break to hear my thoughts. It’s been quite a day, don’t you think?” Ed asked.

“It has…" Winry admitted. "As amazing it has been, I am quite eager to get into my own bed soon.” Ed gave her a puppy dog expression, so she added: “We’ll see if someone gets to join me. Maybe if you are extra nice to me. Anyway, Gracia already left, Garfiel is hitting on someone, and Rosé and Paninya’s dancing is looking like they don’t really need our company… so I’d say we’re free to go.”

“Sounds good to me. By the way, Al sends his congrats,” Ed remembered. “He’s with Mei now but said he’d catch up with us tomorrow.”

“Oh! How is it going between those two?”

“The last time I saw them together, they were chatting pretty eagerly about who knows what, so I’d say it’s going pretty well. Too bad she lives in Xing, though. What if they get together, and he decides to move there?”

“I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself again,” Winry noted. “They just met. But what about us? It’s like you said, we live pretty far from each other and travel a lot… Should we try to come up with a schedule for our meetings?”

“Until my leg is healed, you don’t have to worry about me traveling…” Ed sighed. “I will have plenty of free time. I think I might spend a little while in Resembool because I’m not super eager to do household work with this leg.” Winry understood that a tiny part of him also wanted to go there to see if things between him and his dad would get better after the latest phone call.

“I’ll visit you there when I have my next free weekend! Hey… does this situation remind you of your party?” Winry realized suddenly.

“I guess it does,” Ed agreed. “A lot has happened after that, though… Even though it has only been a few days.”

“Sometimes… things… happen fast. You don’t regret it, do you?” Winry asked, slight hint of worry in her voice.

“No.” Ed shook his head. “I thought this was going to be difficult, but now that it’s actually happening… I realized it’s really quite simple. I want to spend more time with you. I just… needed to deal with some things first.”

“I understand. And hey, I’ll be here the whole time if you still need help with that,” Winry promised, and it was her turn to kiss Ed on the cheek. “Hey, what’s that?” she asked when she noticed Ed was holding a small box in his hand. If it had been anyone else giving her that box, she might have been more nervous about what was in it, but she knew Ed wouldn’t ask her so soon… Right?

“Um… this is just a championship gift for you…” Ed said, and Winry immediately relaxed. “I was going to give it to you no matter what result, but it turned out going pretty well, don’t you think?”

“Heh, I guess so.” Winry unwrapped the paper around the box carefully and admired its black surface for a moment before opening it. “Ed, these are so pretty!”

What she saw in the box were earrings, with tiny golden skates hanging from them. She took them in her hand to get a better look at them.

“I just… well, I asked Riza if she knew what would make you happy, and she said you like earrings. So. I went to the shop where they sell these and… thought the skates were pretty fitting… in many ways… since you know, skating was what united us in the first place… and… gold to match your medal…”

“Awww. That is so sweet.” She quickly wiped the corners of her eyes dry and turned Ed’s head to face her. “Seriously, I love them. Thank you.” Then she leaned in to press a light kiss on his mouth. They let the kiss linger for a few moments before Winry pulled away and run her hand on Ed’s automail arm briefly.

“Hey, guess what… I kinda have a gift for you too. It’s in my room, though, so should we take a cab and leave?”

“It’s like you said, I don’t think anyone would miss us… so sure!” Ed gave Winry his familiar shit eating grin, taking his crutches from the bench next to him before jumping up.

…

The couple waved their goodbyes to those of their friends who were still left at the club and took the first cab to the hotel (this time they were farther from the hotel than during Ed’s birthday so Winry didn’t want to make Ed walk all the way). For some reason, Ed hesitated a bit before stepping inside Winry’s room once they got there.

“What’s wrong?” Winry folded her arms over her chest and stared at Ed questioningly.

“It’s just… We are a… couple… now… so I hope you’re not expecting…”

“Expecting what?” Winry tilted her head slightly as she tried to understand what Ed was saying. “Oh!” she finally realized, her face turning red. “Nonono, I wasn’t thinking about that… Not that I wouldn’t like… eventually… but we can take our time… No, there’s something I want to show you…”

Seeing Winry's rambling made Ed relax, and he started laughing so hard he doubled over.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, slightly hurt because she didn’t understand what was in Ed’s mind in that moment. Was he laughing at her?

“It’s just…” he guffawed, “… The tables have turned… Remember what happened the last time we spent a night together? You thought I was expecting us to…”

“Oh!” Winry finally understood the connection.

"We are a bunch of idiots, aren't we?" Ed shook his head and closed the door behind him. "Always making wrong assumptions and stuff."

"Maybe we are," Winry had to admit. "Anyway, come here. I have some drawings I want to show you.”

Ed hopped towards the table on which Winry had spread her papers and squinted as he was trying to figure out what was in her drawings. “Wait a second… Is this an automail arm?”

“I noticed your arm was creaking a bit, so I designed this… What do you think?" Winry asked. "We would of course need to measure your arm before I can draw the final version, but… I’d love to do it if you let me?”

“Have you built automails before?” Ed asked, even though he believed he knew the answer. She had drawn that picture complete from the scratch, after all.

“I have, plenty! Although…” she blushed a bit as she continued: “this would be the first one that would be in use…”

“Well, it looks amazing, so… why the hell not? Truth to be told, I don’t really like my current mechanic so it would be a win-win situation in many ways.”

“It’s settled, then!” Winry clapped her hands excitedly. “You, me and an automail date once this season is over and I have more time to focus on mechanics. Although… I would like to get some measures sooner because that way I’ll have more time to prepare for it.” She pulled out the tape measure from her bag and looked at him expectantly. “Would you mind?”

“Of-of course not…” Ed said, although a bit hesitantly because Winry seemed to have turned her geek mode on. “What do you need me to do?”

“Uhh… You would probably need to take your shirt off because I need to be able to see where the shoulder piece starts and stuff…” She was blushing again. Ed threw his coat and suit on a nearby chair and sat down on the bed, unbuttoning his dress shirt slowly. He turned to look at Winry as he felt her gaze on him.

“Enjoying the view?” Ed cocked his eyebrow when their eyes met.

“You are suddenly awfully smug for someone who just freaked out about coming into my room,” Winry retorted, although her cheeks were still burning.

“I just like to make you as flustered as you make me…”

An awkward silence fell between them, but finally Ed added: “OK, just to be clear... you know, about that earlier topic: I do want to… do it with you… eventually, like you said… but with this cast… it would be really uncomfortable, and… I think you deserve better than that… so… I’d rather wait… until I feel 100 per cent fine…”

“I didn’t think you’d be worried about that… That’s… that’s so nicely said.”

Ed shrugged. “So, should we measure this thing?”

“Of course!” Winry turned back into her usual mechanics loving self. “First I’m going to check the full length, and then…”

“You do realize that sounds a whole lot dirtier than it actually is?” Ed snorted, gaining a pointed look from Winry. “What? I’m just speaking the truth.”

“How about you just shut up for a moment and let me work.” Winry rolled her eyes and tried to focus on her tape measure, which was very hard, though, because she had her bare-chested boyfriend (she was still excited about being able to use that word) in front of her. And he wasn’t a bad sight at all. As she had expected given his hockey player status, his upper body was built, his abs could have worked as a washboard and his only arm had probably been used to lift heavy weights a lot during Ed’s free time. Winry’s fingers traced the scar under the automail port, checking the skin for possible issues, and that made Ed inhale sharply.

“Sorry. Did that hurt?” Winry asked worriedly.

“No… It… felt good.” Ed stammered, trying to keep himself in line. ‘Hydrogen, helium, litium…’ he started mumbling under his breath.

“OK…” Winry said and bent down to write down some measures she had already gotten, her dress not leaving much for Ed’s imagination. He nearly bolted from the bed.

“Done.” She finally stopped her ‘torture’ and put the tape measure and the paper away. She hadn’t even realized she had been holding her breath while working. “Is something wrong?” she asked when she realized Ed was mumbling something incoherent and avoiding eye contact with her. “Ed, I’m your girlfriend. You can tell me.”

“Let’s just say that… I have never wished more that I didn’t have my leg broken,” he said quietly. Winry sat down on his right leg and put one of her hands on his cheek, making him look at her.

“Don't worry about it.” She kissed him tenderly, getting a response from him soon. Her fingers played on his bare skin while his metal arm went to cup her ass through her dress, the other one massaging her back. Soon Winry realized he wouldn’t open the zipper of her dress unless she gave him a permission, so she pulled away from the kiss and told him: “I’ve seen you shirtless, so it’s only fair you see me that way too… Equivalent exchange…”

“Have I ever told you you are freaking amazing?” Ed breathed before his hand went to unzip the dress while his lips worked on her neck.

“I think you might have mentioned that once or twice but it never hurts to hear it again.” Winry grinned and stood up to shake the dress off once Ed had unzipped it. “What? Have you never seen a half naked woman before?” she teased when Ed gaped at her like she was some kind of miracle.

“I-I have but never anyone who looks as… wow…” His eyes took all of her in, from the strong thighs to the skin colored strapless bra, before focusing on her face again. Even though she must have been dead tired already, and her make-up was slightly smudged, in Ed’s opinion she looked incredible.

“Thank you,” Winry sat down next to him on the bed. “Wanna help me with this?” she turned her back to him, so Ed could unhook her bra.

“Sure, but… I’m gonna explode if we continue much further. And I just said… this is not how I want to do this.”

“I didn’t mean we have to do anything, silly,” she tried to comfort him. “I just want to get rid of this thing because trust me, it’s pretty uncomfortable to sleep with.”

“Oh. OK. I got it.”

After getting her bra unhooked and throwing it away, Winry got up again and made a bit of a show of stretching her arms in front of Ed (giving Ed a very good shot of some of her best features) before pulling her pajama top on her. Ed didn’t know how to react, causing him to just stare at her dumbfounded with his mouth open.

“What was that for?” he asked, sounding almost frustrated.

“Just something for you to look forward to while we are away from each other, I guess.” She winked.

“You dumb, I would… I would be looking forward to our next meeting either way.” Ed folded his arms, sounding almost offended that Winry thought there was any other possibility. “I mean, you look great and all, but I care about your personality more.”

“That means a lot to me, Ed. I… uh, never mind.” She laid down next to him and snuggled her head against his bare chest. “This has been… one of the best days of my life. And a lot of it is thanks to you. I just wanted you to know that.”

“You… you deserve it.” He kissed her on the forehead before closing his eyes and falling asleep.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friendly teasing and the medal ceremony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, the last chapter that I have already written. But worry not, I have gazillion ideas for the next one so I /think/ I will be able to write it this week. So stay tuned :) Enjoy and please please review!

The next morning, Ed woke up to his phone ringing. When he registered what the sound was, his first reaction was to throw the phone at the wall and continue sleeping, with his girlfriend still using him as her pillow (the closeness felt surprisingly good in his opinion). But whoever was calling was persistent, forcing Ed to eventually take the phone from the bedside table and check the name on the screen. He carefully moved Winry farther so he could sit down. She stirred too, equally annoyed by the noise.

“What’s up?” she asked.  
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up. I gotta take this, it’s Al. Hey, little brother,” he finally answered the phone, with some annoyance in his voice.

“Hi to you too, big brother.” Al retorted back. “Your teammates have been asking me where you are because you weren’t at the game, didn’t answer the calls and didn’t return to your hotel room either. So would you please keep your phone on from now on and let them know you are still alive?” His voice turned less scolding, more curious. “Also what happened to you after you left the arena yesterday? Tell me everything.”

“I’m in Winry’s room right now, but I’m supposed to go and pick up my hockey gear from our locker room later this morning. Wanna come help me carry my bags?” It was Ed’s code for ‘I’ll tell you face-to-face’.

“Oh, sure. Shall I meet you in an hour?” Al asked, a wide smirk spreading on his face. What exactly had happened between his brother and his crush last night?

“Sounds fine to me. See ya.” Ed finished the call and sighed a bit, running his hand through his messy hair. “Back to reality, I guess,” he told Winry.

“Nooo, not yet,” she mumbled against her pillow sleepily. “Let me be an Olympic champion with a brand new boyfriend a little bit longer.”

He turned her to face him and said, slightly amused: “Dork, you still have both of those things. It wasn’t a dream.”

Winry’s cheeks got some extra color when she decided to get a bit flirty: “Oh. Then can you remind me what it feels like to get a kiss from your boyfriend?”

Even though Ed pretended to be annoyed, he laid down closer to her and pulled her in for a kiss.

“I could get used to this,” Winry noted when they pulled apart, still resting their foreheads against each other.

“Me too.”

Both were reluctant to move for a good while, but finally Ed said: “I should go back to my room and get some fresh clothes… Don’t want to go to the arena with the suit.”

“I understand. Will you be at my ceremony in the afternoon?” Winry asked. At the previous day’s venue ceremony, she had only gotten some flowers and a plushie, today would be the day she’d get the actual medal.

“Count on it. And I’m pretty sure Al will be there too.”

“That’s very nice of him!” Winry replied happily.

“That’s Al for you,” Ed noted. “But I still haven’t forgiven him for forgetting to tell you I was going to meet you after the competition yesterday so… he is gonna pay back some way.”

“Ed, be nicer to your brother. I’m sure there was an explanation for his behavior.”

Ed snorted at Winry’s comment. “Such as wooing a certain Xingese figure skater? Not a good enough explanation.”

“Jerk. Are you saying there’s something wrong with ‘wooing’ a figure skater? Because I seem to recall… Someone he’s related to did the same thing.” Winry poked his shoulder lightly.

“Hey, I didn’t woo you,” Ed said dramatically. “As a matter of fact, I don’t know how the hell I managed to catch your interest.”

“It was probably the automail.” Winry said playfully while stroking the metal shoulder.

“Fair enough. But I sure am glad it did that. Even though I put you through a lot.”

“It’s OK.” She gave him one more kiss before he started pulling his clothes on. Once he was done, he turned to look at her one more time. “Be happy that I really like you because I’m not sure how I’m going to survive Captain Bastard’s tormenting today.”

“Dork. Just go. The sooner you’ll get over with it, the better.”

Winry threw a pillow at him, and he caught it and threw it back, leaving both of them smiling as he exited the room.

…

It turned out Ed wasn’t worried for nothing. The tormenting started already when he opened the door to his hotel room, revealing the amused Jean Havoc in there, scrolling through his phone casually.

“Well, well, well. Looks like the black sheep has finally returned to his flock. Where were you?”

“With Winry,” Ed answered, “but I don’t see why that information matters to you. I bet you were happy to have the room to yourself.”

“Not complaining, bro,” Havoc said. “It’s just that Mustang was wondering why you weren’t at the game.”

“I was supporting my girlfriend,” Ed emphasized the last word on purpose. “Which I’m pretty sure Al already told you guys.”

“He did, I just wanted to hear it from your mouth.” Havoc shrugged. “Well, I’m glad that girl of yours finally got some sense into you. So… did you guys seal the deal yet?”

“Just because we are a… couple…” Ed stopped to taste the word he hadn’t used earlier. “… Doesn’t mean we need to rush things. I’m not like you, Havoc. Anyway, I saw what happened in yesterday’s game. Do you have any excuses for the loss?”

“Trying to hit me into my weak spot?” Havoc glared at his younger teammate. “Low blow, Elric, low blow.”

“I think you were just missing your best forward,” Ed grinned as widely as only he could.

“Laugh ahead, dude. Once you get over that honeymoon phase, we will make you feel our pain.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Ed laughed before quickly grabbing some clean clothes and withdrawing into bathroom to change before Havoc could bite back.

…

“And that’s what happened,” Ed finished his story to Al who had surprisingly let Ed tell about last night’s events (with light censorship of course. For example Winry’s stunt after the automail measuring wasn’t mentioned) without interrupting him, other than slight snickering at the most amusing parts. They were about to enter Team Amestris’ locker room and Ed was glad he had managed to tell Al the most important events without Captain B… Mustang hearing him.

“Aww, brother, that’s so sweet. I’m so glad you worked things out. I can see she is not just any girl to you. And of course she seems to care about you a lot too.”

Ed was thankful that for once Al didn’t take the opportunity to make fun of him, and he understood it was Al’s way to show he really was happy about the change in Ed’s life. Al if anyone had had to see Ed’s dark side more than enough, and he wished those days were behind him now.

“Yeah… It’s… weird. I mean in a good way. How on earth did I manage to snatch the most awesome girl at the Olympics? And let’s be real, in Amestris too.”

“Holy shit, brother, you really are in love.” Al could barely keep his voice calm. “Never have I ever heard you talk like that. Although, I would like to disagree about that most awesome girl at the Olympics part, because I dare to say that I found that one.”

“Oh yeah?” Ed challenged him. “So how are things between you and Ms. Chang exactly? A little bird told me someone forgot to tell someone else something important yesterday because he was gushing over someone else.”

“Whoops. I’m sorry, Ed.” Al genuinely looked ashamed. “It’s just, she sent me a message from the dressing room after the ceremony and told me that she’d like me to join her celebrations and I just… kinda forgot after that.”

“Maybe I’ll let it slip this one time. Don’t let it happen again, though!” Ed warned, although soon he was grinning again. “So, what happened at her party? Are you guys dating now?”

“I’m not quite sure,” Al replied honestly. “Maybe? I mean, we have a lot of fun when we spend time together, but I haven’t forgotten she lives in Xing. How do you maintain a long-distance relationship like that?”

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s not so easy for Winry and me either.” Ed sighed. “We are both traveling to our games and contests all the time. I guess the pro of having a broken leg is that I can’t travel and she can visit me any time wants to or has free time.”

“That’s… good. Oh, hey Mustang!” Al greeted the captain of Ed’s team who had just exited the gym of the locker room.

“Hello, Alphonse. I see you finally found him,” Mustang huffed at Ed’s direction. “Nice of you to decide to show your face here, Fullmetal. Did you end up worshipping the porcelain throne last night?”

“And why exactly would I have done that?” Ed raised his eyebrow threateningly. “In case you didn’t realize, drinking and a broken leg are not a very good combination. You’d think a smart person like you would understand that much.

“Ed ended up worshipping his girlfriend instead,” Al laughed, and Ed threw an angry glare at him. “What? I’m just telling the truth.”

“She’s the best figure skater in the whole freaking world, so of course I’m proud of her! And did you know she can build automails? Because…”

“Wow, wow, you need to cool down a bit. You start to sound like Hughes.” Roy snorted.

“Did someone call me?” a familiar voice could be heard from the gym.

“Nope. I just said Edward has started to sound a lot like you.” Roy gave his friend a self-satisfied smirk. “He’s been praising his girlfriend a lot while he’s been here, which is about two minutes so far.” He tapped his watch.

“Why does everyone use the g-word in a way that makes me never want to use it again?” Ed growled. “Yes, I have one. Yes, she’s great. I’m saying it how I see it. Why is that such a big deal?”

Roy continued to look pleased with himself. “Well, if you want an honest answer, here’s one: I didn’t think we would get to see this day.”

“Somehow, I still managed to get a girlfriend before you did,” Ed threw back. “How’s Riza doing, by the way?”

“It’s not that simple, Elric. Your girlfriend doesn’t have relatives managing our team,” Roy said, finally getting serious.

“Don’t mind him,” Hughes came between them, “Ed, we are actually really happy to see that you are finally starting to get better and found such an awesome significant other. I know a lot about her thanks to Gracia and I can say you could have done a lot worse.”

“Thanks, Hughes,” Ed told him. “So, now that we are finally done with that… About yesterday. It was really tough to follow. I wish I could have been there to help you guys out.”

“Don’t worry, Ed,” Hughes answered, even though he was still wincing a bit at the memory. “Of course it’s never fun to lose, especially such a big game. But it’s still just one loss, and we’ll get over it. It’s still been a fun tournament. Well, for the most part,” he added when he remembered Ed’s cast. “Bummer that your first Olympic tournament ended like that.”

Ed had never liked pity, so he just shrugged. “Could have been worse. I did learn something valuable during this time. About letting people in.”

“That’s the spirit!” Hughes slapped Ed on his back. “Hey, our ladies are battling for bronze this afternoon! What do you say, should we all go cheer them?”

“Sounds like a plan. As long as it’s not at the same time with Winry’s ceremony,” Ed remembered quickly.

“She already has you soo wrapped around her fingers,” Maes laughed. “But don’t worry, the game won’t start until 2 PM so you should be able to see her just fine.”

“Oh. That’s good then,” Ed agreed.

“Can I take Mei with me?” Al asked suddenly.

“Mei, Mei Chang from Xing?” Hughes asked, and Al nodded. “You brothers seem to have a thing for some great figure skaters. I completely understand the feeling, though,” he added and the rest of the time at the locker room he doted on Gracia while the others packed their hockey gear into their bags.

…

A cool wind pinched Winry’s cheeks as she was waiting to get called to the podium. The previous night had been a blur for the most part, but now she finally started to understand it: she had actually won gold. She imagined her Granny watching her at home on TV and smiling proudly, Den wagging her tail next to her. She also imagined how her parents would have reacted to this event. They probably would have hugged her and given a kiss on her cheek, telling her how proud they were. The thought made her emotional, though, so she decided to focus on the now: aside from her friends, she knew there would be one person who would be happy to give her a hug once the ceremony was over. She imagined how his golden eyes would shine happily when she’d show him the medal and maybe he’d even dare to kiss her if there weren’t too many cameras around. That thought made her smile again.

While waiting for the ceremony to begin, Mei started to talk to her. She told her how she had accidentally bumped into Ed and Al, how she and Al (or Mr. Alphonse like she still seemed to prefer to call him) had hit it right off, and ended up having a lot of fun together already two nights in a row. Some of it she had already heard from Ed last night, but seeing how much Mei seemed to like Al made her embarrassed that she had ever been jealous. She decided to confess Mei that she had seen her and Ed outside the arena and thought for a moment that someone was going on, to which the black-haired girl started giggling.

“What’s so funny?” Winry asked.

“It’s just… Mr. Alphonse is much more suitable for me than Mr. Edward. He’s so polite and sweet.”

“Hey, Ed can be sweet too when he wants to! He… may not always give the best first impression but he has a golden heart.”

The debate ended at that moment, because the announcer started speaking in a language that Winry didn’t understand, but she knew that was her, Mei and Lan Fan’s cue to start walking. They stopped behind the podium and finally she was able to see how many people were there to cheer for them. It was nearly overwhelming. To think that their sport could interest so many people… Finally, she thought she was able to spot a sea of green, meaning Ed and several of his teammates had arrived too. A wide smile spread on her face.

A local figure skating legend and the leader of the worldwide figure skating union gave Mei and Lan Fan their medals and presents (a silver watch), and then it was her turn. The watch was beautiful, it had her name and a female figure skater engraved on the back and behind the pointers there was a picture of the Olympic venue. However, she didn’t have a lot of time to admire it, because the national anthem of Amestris started playing, and for some reason it brought all the memories from this Olympic journey into her mind. The falling. Her friends’ support. Everything that had happened with Ed. The phone call with her granny. The final performance. Finding out she had won. And of course the amount of work it had required her to get to that point. It all overwhelmed her and she realized tears had started gathering in the corners of her eyes and she quickly swept them away before the others could see. She started singing along and realized that so did a lot of people in the audience. That made her realize how many people there really were supporting her, and after that she couldn’t stop the happy tears anymore.

…

“You OK? I saw you were crying on the podium.” Of course those were Ed’s first words once he finally reached Winry outside the ceremony venue. Winry wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his coat while Ed tried to awkwardly hug her with one arm while keeping the other on the crutch so he wouldn’t fall.

“Yes, I’m OK, silly. They were happy tears.” She mumbled against the fabric.

He leaned his jaw against the top of her head and wrapped the free arm a bit tighter around her. “Oh… then I’m happy too.”


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the goodbyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. The final chapter before the epilogue. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me and this fic through this long journey! Without the lovely comments, I wouldn’t have been motivated to continue. Special shoutout to @roboticrainboots for the amazing art she sent me this week! ♥
> 
> Now, get ready for a monster chapter. But make sure to read A Letter to Winry before that if you haven’t, because it has a role in this chapter.
> 
> Also, just a fair warning: in one scene things get a bit heated, but I still didn't think it was heated enough to change the rating of this fic.

Most of Ed’s team plus Winry and Gracia gathered together to watch team Amestris’ ladies play for bronze. Winry was wearing her green jersey again, earning a cheek kiss from Ed, even though he refused to tell her what the kiss was for. Alphonse, who was sitting next to them, just giggled at his brother’s behavior before turning his attention back to the ice.

The first two periods of the game were even, with team Amestris tied 1 – 1 with team Drachma at the end of the first 40 minutes. Apparently, coach Olivier Armstrong managed to encourage her team in just the right way during the intermission, though, because in the third period the audience got to see a whole new team Amestris.

“Is it just me, or do they look like they’re almost ready to kill?” Winry asked when Rebecca Catalina gave a Drachman forward a particularly powerful tackle. A few moments later, Riza Hawkeye shot the puck from a spot she had never failed to score from, and the Amestrisian side of the audience got a reason to get loud.

“She’s better at that than I am,” Roy gawped at his long time “friend” who coolly fistbumped her teammates after the goal.

“That doesn’t really mean a lot, though, Mustang,” Ed remarked and made everyone laugh. “Isn’t your shooting percentage like… 0,05?”

“Funny how you remember stats like that… but you don’t remember how much I’ve sat in the penalty box because I’ve had to defend you.”

“Now now, everyone cool down a bit!” Hughes yelled over the roaring audience. “Ross is on a breakaway!”

And she was. She had managed to outspeed two Drachmans and was just about to get face to face with the goalie, when someone tripped her. A penalty shot was called, and Maria Ross used the opportunity to her advantage, making the situation 3-1.

“You guys could learn a lot from them,” Gracia teased, and the men around her couldn’t help but agree.

At some point Ed and Winry started wondering why Al was being so quiet, but when they turned to look towards him, they noticed Mei had finally arrived. She and Al were throwing disgustingly sappy looks at each other, something that Ed would probably call “eye sex” when Al wasn’t hearing.

Riza scored one more goal (from the corner of his eye Ed could see Roy’s badly hidden excitement), and team Amestris ended up winning the bronze medal with a 4-1 game. As they got their medals, no one on the ice looked prouder than Olivier Armstrong, and Ed guessed she would soon start sending smug messages from their celebrations to Roy. They had a weird rivalry going on, having known each other since they were kids. Ever since having to finish her playing career early because of an injury, Olivier had acted bitterly towards Roy and used every opportunity she could to brag him about her coaching achievements.

Roy didn’t care about Olivier’s expressions, though, because his and Riza’s eyes met and his expression turned softer than Ed ever remembered seeing.

“Could you be any more obvious?” Ed asked with annoyance, but then a familiar arm wrapped around his, making Ed forget all about the googly eyes around him.

…

Ed tried to talk himself out of the ending ceremony of the Olympics, because having played only one game and having to walk on the crutches, he thought he would feel out of place there. However, his teammates kept insisting, and when the goalie Armstrong offered to carry him on his back at the stadium, he knew he was fighting a lost battle.

Since it was a known fact that these were Gracia’s last Olympics, she got the honor of carrying the flag of Amestris as one of the most successful figure skaters the country had had so far. Her fiancé was next to her the whole time, gesturing towards her every time a camera went past. Winry, who also walked near her, glanced at Ed on Alex Louis Armstrong’s shoulders every once in a while. He looked a bit embarrassed but was still smiling and waving at the audience just like everyone else in their group. Winry knew he was actually happy to be able to participate and grinned at him when she noticed he was watching her.

A bit later, they were sitting in the stands next to each other, and when the fire on the giant torch went out, and the final fireworks formed colorful shapes above, Ed said: “Can’t believe it’s over.”

“Yeah,” Winry agreed. “But let’s not be sad that it’s over, let’s be happy it happened, right?”

“Sounds good to me.” Ed looked briefly down and saw Winry rubbing the knuckles of his real hand through the glove. Something warm that he couldn’t describe started bubbling in his stomach, making him happy he was there in that moment.

…

”Hey, granny!” Winry answered her phone at the airport. It was a day after the ending ceremony, and everyone had packed their things and left the hotel after the breakfast to start their trip back home.

”Hey, dear.” Pinako Rockbell greeted her granddaughter. “Are you on your way home yet?”

“We just arrived at the airport. Uh, that’s sort of why I’m calling.”

“Oh.”

“You see…” Winry started a bit hesitantly, “we get back to Central City quite late and there aren’t any trains leaving to Rush Valley until tomorrow…”

“And? Are you going to stay at the hotel for the night?” Pinako asked.

“Actually… I was going to stay at Ed’s place. If that’s OK with you.”

Pinako had to admit she still saw Winry as her little girl, but it was a fact that she was already 18 and way smarter than Pinako had been at Winry’s age. So in a way, it would be hypocritical of her to deny her this.

“Ed’s? So, are you two a couple now?” Pinako asked curiously.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Winry still blushed when she stopped to consider the fact that she really had a boyfriend now.

“Oh. I hope that runt is treating you well,” Pinako stated coolly.

“He is! I mean, he’s nothing but respectful…” Winry reassured her.

“Good. Well, you are an adult now so you have to make your own decisions. But remember to be careful. And use protection!”

Winry’s eyes widened. “Granny! Just because I’m staying a night there doesn’t mean… ugh… Sleeping is all we are planning to do. He’s recovering from a pretty bad injury.”

“I believe you,” Pinako said. Winry thought she could hear a bit of laughter in her voice. “Somehow, I still have a feeling that’s not the only reason why you are calling. You wouldn’t listen to your old granny even if I had said no. So, what’s on your mind?”

“Granny… I think I’ve made my decision about the next step in my career. But I want to hear your opinion before telling anyone else…”

“Go ahead, tell me.”

The two women spent a good while chatting about Winry’s plans before finishing the call. When Winry joined the others in the waiting area, Ed asked what Pinako had said.

“She called you a runt,” Winry snickered, loving to tease her boyfriend.

“She what?!” Ed looked mortified.

“Oh relax.” Winry waved it off. “She didn’t mean it like that. In fact, I think she approves of us. At least she allows me to stay with you.”

“Why wouldn’t she? It’s not like we…” Ed stammered.

“I know, Ed.” Winry sighed. “Anyway, I’m quite excited to see where you live. Although… I bet you don’t remember to clean and have sweaty clothes all over the floor.”

“Oh? I’ll prove you wrong then.” Ed smiled at his girlfriend mischievously and grabbed her from her shoulder, so she had to face him. Before he could pull her closer, though, Winry stopped him.

“Ed… There are cameras everywhere. Are you sure you want to do this?”

He looked around quickly, noticing that she was right. Clearly their group drew a lot of attention, with two Olympic figure skater medalists and two well known hockey player siblings in it. Sighing, he admitted: “Fine. Let’s save it for later.”

“Looking forward to it,” Winry ruffled his hair and turned her head to see what Al and Mei were doing. Clearly, they didn’t have any problems showing public display of affection. It looked like they had known each other much longer than the 5 days they had actually spent together. Mei was hugging Al tightly, and it wasn’t until then that it properly hit Winry that once Mei would leave to her own flight, they probably wouldn’t see each other in months. She and Ed had it easy compared to those two; at least they lived in the same country.

“So, how is it going with you two?” Ed asked when Al returned from the gate behind which Mei had disappeared. “Plans to move to Xing yet?”

“C’mon, brother, we haven’t known each other that long yet. I did promise to visit her in the summer, though. It’s not that far anymore… After that, who knows. She is from a wealthy family that is expecting her to make a name for herself… it’s not that simple for her to move to Amestris. Not that I’ve seriously considered asking her that yet,” Al blushed slightly. “It’s way too early. But I guess the summer will tell a lot…”

“I can’t wait to see dad’s expression when you just one day announce you’re going to move to Xing,” Ed teased. “Make sure to tell him when I’m there too.”

“Don’t be mean, brother. It might bite you back one day.”

“Har har. Anyway, we should go,” Ed nodded towards the gate where people had already started gathering to show their passports and tickets.

…

“So, this is where you live?”

“Yup.”

Winry looked around with mild surprise. She didn’t know what she had expected. A mansion? A penthouse in one of the most expensive apartment buildings in Central? Wasn’t that what most rich hockey players bought? She wasn’t stupid, she knew Ed’s salary had at least one 0 more than hers, because unfortunately female athletes still didn’t receive the appreciation they deserved. But when she stepped into Ed’s apartment, it was almost like she had come back to Resembool (if you ignored the view from the window); it was surprisingly modest, with only the “necessary” furniture such as a small wooden dinner table with a couple of matching chairs and a black leather couch for two in front of a TV and a video game set. The bed in the bedroom was thankfully big enough for two to sleep, Winry noted happily. The cover on it wasn’t the most charming, though; it was black and had skulls printed on it.

“Where have you gotten that from?” Winry pointed at it, looking quite amused.

“Do I sense a Judgey McJudge raising her head?” Ed set his hands on his hips and tilted his head a bit. “Anyway, I think I got it when I first moved away from home but it’s been a few years so I don’t remember which store it was anymore. Why? Do you want to buy one too?”

“Nah, just wondering which store I should bribe to never sell anything to you again.” Winry retorted and stuck her tongue out.

“Is this it?” Ed pretended to be shocked. “Our first real fight as a couple, over my bed covers? I guess it was fun while it lasted.”

Winry pushed his shoulder lightly. “You’re such a big baby. Keep that thing if you want, but please let me bring my own pillowcase and duvet cover here so I won’t have to see nightmares.”

“Y-you’re already considering bringing your stuff here?” Ed asked, this time actually surprised.

“We agreed to be a couple, didn’t we?” Winry asked pointedly. “Couples visit each other sometimes. So yeah, I’m just meaning my visits. I’m not planning to move here any time soon. I have my career and friends in Rush Valley.”

“Right. Of course. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to be.” Winry softened, covering his cheek with her warm hand. “I know you don’t just magically get over your fear of commitment even if we did agree to do this. I… should also be better at remembering to not push it.”

“You’re pretty wonderful,” Ed gave her a gentle smile, very different from his usual one that went from ear to ear and often implied mischief.

“Thanks. I’m trying my best,” Winry said happily and continued taking in the rest of Ed’s apartment.

“I have to say, I’m surprised it’s this clean here. I expected a huge mess. You know, based on your hotel room and stuff.”

“Nah, it’s only because Al was staying here before the Olympics. Don’t get too used to this.”

“I’ll try to remember to thank him the next time we see him,” Winry noted. “Hey, is it OK if I use the shower? I’m feeling quite gross after that flight.”

“Yeah, go ahead. There are clean towels in that closet there if you need any.” Ed showed her the right door.

“Thanks,” Winry said before leaving her stuff in Ed’s room, grapping a towel and disappearing from his view.

Ed remembered the similar situation from a good week ago, when he and Winry had shared their first night together. Back then his thoughts had immediately gone to the dirty track, and he had secretly wished his leg wasn’t in a cast. But something had changed in such a short time. He understood now that what he felt towards Winry wasn’t purely physical attraction anymore. He respected her, admired her skills and personality and wanted her to be happy. Preferably with him, of course.

So while he still blushed fiercely at the thought of his naked girlfriend in the shower, he could focus on the more respectable details: the content smile on her face as the warm water eased the stiffness of her muscles after a long flight, the way she hummed happily one of her favorite songs while she rinsed off the soap (not that he’d admit ever hearing her humming).

Ed started taking in his surroundings, and something caught his eyes: a picture of his family, all together before his mother had fallen ill. For a long while Ed had hated that picture because it reminded him of what he could never have, what he so deeply wanted; a full family. But suddenly his parents’ looks towards each other caught his attention; their smiles told him they must have loved each other a lot. Briefly, he wondered if he and Winry could achieve that…

Love was something Ed understood only vaguely. Apparently, when you’re in love, your brain produces certain chemicals that makes you act like an idiot (or that’s what it sounded like in Ed’s opinion). Thinking back to his recent behavior, he certainly had acted quite weirdly (even more than usual, Al’s voice said in his head). He was blushing and stuttering and sometimes even sweating for no good reason, and he wanted to do things he had never wanted to do before (simply kissing had felt a bit absurd in his head). In Ed’s opinion, it was against all the chemistry rules he had learned so far. How could simply being with another person make your brain go drugged? But now that he was falling into that “trap”, he supposed not every reaction had to make sense. If being with Winry made him feel this happy, then to hell with equivalent exchange.

Was he ready to use the big and scary L-word yet? He was worried he would freak out both her and himself if he said it out loud (after all, it had only been 3 weeks since they were reunited), but he wished his actions were clear enough that she knew how he felt even without saying it. Winry had already been honest about her feelings and he felt he owed her for it… 

Suddenly Ed remembered his letter. After Winry had asked for the break before her competition, Ed had decided to write down some of his thoughts to clear his mind, and wrote a letter for Winry that he however had never intended to give her. But with them leaving to their separate ways tomorrow, he thought that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. He hopped to his suitcase that was yet to be unpacked and found the slightly worn piece of paper from one of its pockets. He added a couple of lines at the end of the letter before he heard the shower turning off, making him push the paper into his pocket. Soon Winry stepped out with only a towel around her, a smaller one around her wet hair. She sneaked behind Ed and wrapped her arms around his torso before leaning her head against his shoulder blade.

“That felt nice,” she mumbled. “You should probably take a shower too, though… You smell like sweat.” She let go of Ed and started drying her hair with the towel.

“Hey, it’s just my masculine scent!” Ed tried to protest but pulled his bandage protector and a folding shower chair that he had gotten from Drachma from his luggage and focused on getting the protector on. When he got up, he noticed Winry was sporting a silk robe she had gotten from Xing, only underwear under it. He may he already seen her nearly naked, but that didn’t stop his mouth from going dry as the robe didn’t really leave too much room for his imagination.

“You’re staring,” Winry pointed out suddenly, not knowing how she should react to the fact that her form seemed to cause quite some interest in her partner.

“Can you blame me? You are hot as… OK, let me rephrase that: I am one lucky bastard to have a girlfriend like you.”

“You hockey players are so cheesy,” Winry said as she ran a finger on his cheek briefly. From her expression, though, Ed read that she was actually quite pleased by the compliment.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’mma take that shower now.” He hopped into the bathroom with the chair in his hand.

Once he came out clean and refreshed some minutes later, he found Winry watching the picture of his family curiously.

“Why are you looking at it?” he asked.

“I’m just… trying to remember what it was like when we both still lived in Resembool,” Winry answered dreamily. “Do I remember correctly that you used to walk with stilts a lot? Because I was nagging about you being shorter than me.”

“I was not shorter than you!” Ed protested immediately.

“You were too!”

“Was not!”

“OK, let’s finish this before it stops being fun. I also remember your mum baking a lot of delicious pies, and my favorite part of hanging out at your house was always when she called us to get inside to taste them.”

“Yeah… it was nice,” Ed admitted, although there was a hint of sadness in his voice.

Winry sensed the change in his energy right away. “I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to talk about… I mean, it must be super painful to you… I should know.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry because I sometimes forget how much you have gone through too because you are so positive and helpful and energetic most of the time.”

“I… I don’t know how I do it sometimes. Maybe I’ve gotten good at putting on a smile even when I hurt. But I’m lucky to have such supportive people around me. It’s you guys who keep me going.”

She turned embrace him and placed a soft kiss on his jaw. Ed’s face heated again when he felt the silk against his bare skin and remembered she was wearing very little under it. He had to take the situation in control before something else would happen, so he broke the hug and tried to change the topic.

“So… Would you like to see more photos? I have some from our old house. Haven’t really looked at them since we moved out, but… who knows? Maybe you are in some of them too?”

“Are you OK with that, though?” Winry asked, trying to read his expression. What if the photos triggered some bad memories in him?

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Maybe it’s time for me to face the past…”

“In that case, we can do it,” Winry accepted and soon Ed pulled a photo album from one of the drawers.

They sat down on the couch and started flipping through the pages. On one of the first pages, there was a picture from Ed’s fourth birthday party, and Ed recognized a familiar blonde-haired girl among the guests.

“That’s you! I can’t believe I didn’t remember…”

“You didn’t remember me when we first met at the Olympics, right? Well, we were really small back then…”

“True… Woah, look at this! Did you… did you just throw that piece of cake on my face? What did I do to deserve that?” Ed asked, faking offended.

“You were probably the same brat as usual…” Winry said with amusement. “We had played the donkey’s tail game and you were bragging because you managed to get the tail closest to its rightful spot… because you peeked. I couldn’t accept that.”

“Sounds like something I would do,” Ed laughed and turned the page. Suddenly he exhaled sharply, and Winry didn’t have to look at the photo too long to understand why. In it, Ed was around 15 years old, and he was smiling widely at a little girl playing with her big white dog. Winry guessed Al must have taken that pic when visiting Ed, because she doubted Ed would have saved anything that Tucker took.

“That’s her, right?” Winry asked, and instinctively took Ed’s hand into hers, to comfort him.

“Yeah, she is…”

“If you want to… I would like to know more about her. Some happy memories?” Winry thought that maybe remembering the happy times could help Ed to get over the guilt he still seemed to carry.

“Well…” Ed seemed to consider it for a moment. “When it was her 4th birthday, her biggest wish was to get a birthday cake. With a bastard father like that, and mother gone, it was no wonder she hadn’t ever gotten to eat birthday cake before that. Since I had no games that day, I had plenty of time in my hands and decided to make her wish come true. Yeah, you probably guessed right that I hadn’t ever baked before that. But I decided to take it like a chemical experiment, and weirdly enough, it became edible. When Nina saw the cake, her expression… it was the happiest I had ever seen on her face. She came to me, hugged me and said: “Thank you, big brother.” It was the first time she called me that. This picture was taken that day, Al came to help us eat the cake too and he had a camera with him. I didn’t expect that picture to… I mean, Al must have put it there.” He continued to stare at the living room wall with a blank expression.

“That was very sweet of you. You look happy in that photo,” Winry noted calmly to drag Ed from his thoughts. “You must have really cared about her a lot…”

“Yeah… Ugh, dammit!” He slammed his fist on the couch suddenly. “Even now when I see this… it makes me so fucking angry… It makes me wish there was something I could do, but…”

“Hey, what if I told you maybe there IS something you can do for her?” Ed threw Winry a suspicious look, so she continued: “I mean, I know they both are long gone, but… I’ve been thinking… we can still help to prevent other kids from suffering the same kind of fate.”

“How?” Ed asked curiously.

“Well, I was thinking of giving some of my prize money to this organization that helps kids of abusive parents… They search for kids who might be in need of help, offer therapy and just talking company, a safe place to be… and so on… What do you think?”

“I think that sounds amazing… So, can I ask you how much exactly you are planning to give away?”

“Well…” she blushed. “Most of it… I mean, it’s not like I need…”

That was all she managed to say before he crashed his lips against hers. This kiss was more passionate than any of the ones they had shared before that, stirring a brand-new feeling inside them. At some point the album fell on the floor because the couple’s attention was elsewhere. They leaned against the arm of the couch, Winry sitting between Ed’s legs trying to avoid touching the cast, her upper body pressed against his. As Ed deepened the kiss, his hands started traveling on her robe, going from the waist towards her chest. Before reaching her breasts, he stopped to meet her gaze.

“Yes, Ed, you can touch them,” Winry confirmed even though Ed hadn’t voiced the question. She raised herself from her spot to give him a better access.

At first he just felt them through the fabric, but the small gasp Winry made encouraged him to inch his fingers under the garment. He seemed a little too proud of himself when he noticed how much Winry seemed to enjoy the automail hand, but suddenly he stopped and put his hands down.

“Not this chivalry again,” Winry sighed. “Do you trust me?”

“I do.”

“Then how about you let me take the charge? We don’t have to go all the way, but a little exploration won’t hurt, right?”

The eagerness from before returned to Ed’s face. “You’re right.”

Winry stood up from the couch and offered her hand to him. “Should we go to continue in your bedroom? This couch is kinda small and uncomfy…”

Ed agreed, letting her help him up. She gave him his crutches, and he hopped into the bedroom after her.

They didn’t sleep for quite a while.

…

The next day, Winry, Ed, Paninya and Rosé all gathered to the Central Station, where the train to Rush Valley was waiting for the figure skaters. Ed was planning to travel to Resembool once he had gotten his leg rechecked at the Central hospital. Paninya and Rosé were already looking forward to the next Grand Prix that would be held in North City, Amestris in a few weeks and they wondered if Garfiel would give them any time to recover from the jet lag before they would be forced to return to the ice. Winry just shook her head at their attitude; while she admitted she was pretty tired too (the reason for which was probably something entirely different than jet lag, though. She blushed as remembered what had happened last night. They hadn’t gone “all the way”, but their physical relationship had still taken a step forward), she was also excited to return back to the regular life, with the familiar people and tasks around her.

Suddenly, she felt Ed tap a finger against her arm and saw him nod to the side, trying to tell her he wanted to say something without the others listening.

However, the words seemed to have a hard time coming out. Ed just stared at his feet for a long while, so Winry finally decided to break the silence:

“I know I’m not your mechanic yet but remember to take care of your arm! It frustrates me to no end when people don’t…”

“Automail geek… just listen to what I have to say, OK?”

“Ugh, Ed, I’m listening the whole time, it’s you who doesn’t say what’s on your mind…”

Ed shifted in his spot uncomfortably. “You’re not making this easy, are you?”

“When have I ever done that?” Winry asked sarcastically.

“I wrote you a letter,” Ed pushed an envelope into her hand, ignoring her question. “I didn’t know if I should give it to you or not, but… I think it might open my mindset during… this all… a bit. I wrote it before your competition. But I also added something new into it.”

“Oh… thank you…” Winry started opening the letter, but Ed stopped her.

“No, not now. On the train. Or whenever you have a peaceful moment.” Ed glanced at Winry’s two friends briefly. They had started gossiping about Garfiel’s new boyfriend and if Ed had to guess, that chatting wouldn’t end in quite a while.

“OK. Will do.” Winry put the letter into her bag , wondering what exactly Ed told in that letter that he couldn’t say aloud…

It was quiet again for a while. Suddenly Winry realized she hadn’t told Ed about her plan yet.

“You know, I’ve been thinking.”

“Hmm?”

“My parents, they always put helping other people ahead of anything else. I want to do the same. That’s why I’m thinking I’m taking sort of a break from figure skating once this season is finished.”

“What? But I thought you love skating?” Ed asked with disbelief.

“I do!”

“What about all those people who come to see figure skating shows because they want to see you?”

“Just because I want to have a break from competing, doesn’t mean I’ll completely stop skating,” Winry pointed out. “No, I’ll still make sure to stay fit, and if someone asks me to take part in their exhibition, I might do it if it fits my schedule. There’s also a good chance I will continue competing after that year is over, only time will tell. But after hearing your story, I feel I want to do something more than just performing. I want to learn to make the best automail there is, to help the people who need them to smile again. Besides… Since I won’t have to travel that much… Maybe I can visit Central City more often.”

“I won’t complain about that.” Ed grinned.

“So… what do you think of my plan?” Winry asked cautiously.

“I think if that’s what you want to do, then I think it’s great!” Ed reassured her.

“Thank you.” Winry gave him a relieved smile.

“Now that we are on the topic… I have some plans too.” Ed noted suddenly.

“Oh? Tell me more.”

Ed started explaining his plan, and Winry had to brush a few tears away when she understood what the plan meant for him.

“So… will you be a part of it?” Ed asked finally.

“Gladly,” she answered before burying her face into his collar, smelling the earthy scent that she would sure miss while they were apart from each other.

It was so comfortable in that spot that Winry didn’t want to move for a while, until she heard Paninya and Rosé talking about the train leaving soon. She disentangled herself from Ed and took a few steps back so she could look at him in the eyes.

“I guess this is it…”

“I guess so…”

“Uh… you know… I had an amazing time at the Olympics… lots of it thanks to you… I know your tournament was a…”

“Disaster,” Ed helped. “No need to deny it.”

“But I selfishly hope I managed to make you feel a bit better.”

“You did. More than you know. And you taught me something important. I explain it in that letter.”

“Ok,” Winry said quietly, on the verge of tears again. “I’ll… I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too. But hey, didn’t someone say phones exist? I think I managed to figure out how to use it… Maybe.” Ed gave her a crooked grin, trying to comfort her.

“Idiot.”

That was all that was said before Winry closed the space between them again and pressed a soft kiss on his lips. It was entirely different from the kiss the previous night, which had been needy and passionate. Instead, with the kiss she was trying to tell him how happy she was to have met him. With the way he reciprocated, she realized he was probably trying to tell her the same thing. When she tried to pull away, he grabbed her arm, making her stop in her spot.

“Thanks. For everything. Let’s not say goodbye, let’s say ‘I’ll see you soon’ instead.”

“That does sound better,” Winry agreed and started fiddling with her bag to find her wallet. When she finally found it, she let out a small yelp.

“What’s wrong?” Ed asked.

“I think… I think I forgot to get cash before coming here… I was so sure I had some… How will I get my ticket now? They only accept cash…”

“I may have some…” Ed said slyly as he withdrew his wallet from his pocket. “But you will have to pay me back one day. Actually, I’m gonna make you buy me a ticket to Rush Valley at some point.”

“Huh?” Winry stared at him with confusion for a moment before she realized it was his way to promise her he’d visit her soon enough. “Oh! Right. You and your equivalent exchange…” she pretended to be annoyed as she accepted the money, even though she was happy to buy him that ticket. “Thank you. I really need to go now, though, so… see you soon.” She gave him one last kiss on his cheek before climbing into the train and turning to wave at him.

“See you!”

Ed was already about to leave the platform when he saw Winry looking at him from the window, and some weird urge made him yell: “Don’t you forget that promise! And read that letter!”

Winry just waved at him until the train started moving, and soon she didn’t see him anymore. She pulled the piece of paper from her bag and started reading.

“… I could continue longer, but Al is waiting, so I should stop writing. Just know that somehow, you have managed to break my shell even though I’ve tried to rebuild it so hard. But I’m not gonna do that anymore. It’s still too early, and besides, you need to focus on your competition, but one day, I hope I’ll be able to be brave enough to tell you this: I’m falling for you too.

Edited 23.3.: I realized I never said those words back to you, so here we go. You deserve them. And more.

To quote Mr. Magpie: “It’s funny how sometimes you have to fly away, so you can find your real home.” I think you know what I mean there.”

Winry pulled her phone from her bag quickly, and typed:

“I do know.

♥”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! What is Ed’s plan though? Find out in the epilogue!


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue. Four years later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So many times I’ve said “we are almost at the end”, but now we REALLY are there. No more LCMTI after this. I love this story like it’s my baby. It’s my first long story, and it will always have a very special place in my heart. But now it’s time to let go. (For now. Because with the passion I have for this au, companion pieces or even a sequel might be a possibility in the future. But I can’t say anything official at this point.)
> 
> The biggest thank you ever to EVERYONE who has in some way encouraged me to continue this story. Without you guys, I would have give up a long time ago. I will always love and appreciate the nice words (and lovely art ;___;) you guys have given me more than you know, and I feel I can’t thank you enough. 
> 
> That being said, it’s time for this very self indu!gent epilogue. Please enjoy, and one last time (when it comes to this fic), let me know what you think!

“Where are you taking me?” Winry asked curiously as Ed and she kept driving on roads that were unfamiliar to her. They were somewhere close to East City, but she had never visited this area, and had no idea what link Ed could possible have there.

“You will see soon enough! Just a little bit longer,” Ed answered, keeping his eyes strictly on the road to not give Winry any hints about their whereabouts.

“Fine. But if you are taking me to your team’s holiday party or something, I’m gonna say no thank you. The last time was definitely enough,” Winry huffed.

“No, this doesn’t have anything to do with them…” Ed shook his head. “Well, maybe a little, but no hockey playing jerks should be around this time.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Winry said, focusing on the landscape again. There was nothing but forests around them, and she didn’t understand what they would find in a place like that.

“Uh, no offense,” she said after they had driven a few more minutes, “but if you wanted to take me on a date or something, some nice East City restaurant would have done… This is a bit… far, don’t you think?”

“Who said something about a date?” Ed scowled. “No, I’m showing you a place that’s important to me… I haven’t been there in a long time…”

“Okay…” Winry said, unsurely. The puzzle pieces in her head still didn’t quite go together after that revelation.

She didn’t have to wonder much longer, though, because soon Ed stopped his car at the park of an old, faraway graveyard.

“Wha…” Finally the pieces started clicking to their rightful places. “Is this where…”

“Yeah, Nina was buried here. We, who knew her, thought it was what she would have liked… She really loved nature… so this is the definitely better than some modern big city cemetery…”

“I can’t say I knew her, but that makes sense…” Winry agreed.

Before long Ed found the grave he was looking for, and kneeled before it.

“Sorry that I haven’t visited in a while…” he started. “We have had a lot going on. My team got to the finals in Amestris’ hockey league, and we’ve also had some arrangements to do… You see, Winry and I are getting married soon. I guess you haven’t met her before, so I brought her with me.” He took Winry’s hand and pulled her closer to the grave.

“You think she hears what you’re saying?” Winry asked with confusion.

“Who knows,” Ed shrugged and left the topic at that. He turned his attention back to the tombstone. “Umh, there’s another thing I wanted to tell you, Nina. The foundation we named after you has already gained several million cenz… So it’s been a success! Dad has also helped us to promote it, and I’ve heard that so far the results have been good. The universities of Amestris are doing more research on mental issues like your father’s, finding new ways to help, and we have also done some co-work with the organization Winry gave her Olympic winning money for. We will make sure things will continue smoothly here and more kids will get help!”

“I think she’d be proud of you.” Winry smiled at her fiancé.

“Thank you,” Ed said and wrapped his arm around her waist.

“You know, I am proud of you too…” she continued. “Remember that boy who freaked out over the thought of possibly liking me? You are not the same person anymore.”

“A lot of it is thanks to you guys, though.”

“Give yourself some credit,” Winry nudged him gently. “You made the decision to let us in. No one else did.”

Ed started feeling a bit awkward, like every time he had to talk about his emotions, so he decided to change the topic:

“Uh, hey, wanna get something to eat? I don’t know about you, but at least I’m starting to get hungry.”

“Sure, why not.” Winry crouched down in front of the grave one more time, taking a flower from her hair that she had put there earlier that day and setting it in front of the stone. “Bye, Nina. It was nice to meet you.”

“We’ll be back soon,” Ed promised, giving the grave one final glance before they left the graveyard hand in hand.

…

“Have you heard about Al lately?” Winry asked as they sat down to eat ice cream in the sun. Before Ed had picked her up from the East City station, she had been spending a couple of weeks in Rush Valley seeing her old friends, so the two of them had a lot to catch up on.

“Oh yeah, he called a couple of days ago,” Ed remembered. “He claims the Xingese hockey league is better than ours, but I think he has other reasons why he’s enjoying himself so much there…”

“Are just jealous that he’s doing so well without you around?” Winry teased.

“Why would I be jealous?” Ed frowned. “I have the best team and the best job and the best…”

“Soon to be wife?” Winry asked with a glint in her eye.

“I was gonna say mechanic, but that goes too.”

“I suppose I can accept that answer. So, tell me, what’s that mechanic like?”

“Well, she can be a real pain in my ass when she complains about me not oiling my arm often enough…” Ed said as if the oiling was the worst thing he knew.

“Watch it!” Winry put her soft ice cream close to Ed’s nose, threatening to mess his face with it if he continued that game.

“… BUT I know she does that only because she cares about me, and she’s also ridiculously hot, and makes me happier… and I can’t wait to marry her.” He spooned a little bit of his ice cream from its cone with his finger and wiped it on her nose tip. Then he leaned forward and pecked the ice cream off her nose.

“Are you definitely the Edward Elric I’ve known since I was a kid?” Winry asked half seriously, half flustered by his words. “Where have you learned to become that… smooth?”

“I’ve always been smooth,” Ed claimed.

“You so have not.”

“Fine. I guess watching Al with Mei has it perks,” he finally admitted.

“Well, thank you, Alphonse and Mei, for making my fiancé a sweet talker. Anyway! Did Al say how he and Mei are doing? Are they living together yet?”

“Mei’s dad seems to be a little reluctant to let his daughter go, but Al is optimistic that they will manage to win him over eventually. From what I’ve heard, they seem to be getting along pretty well because he loves hockey too.”

“That’s good. I hope everything will go work out well for them.”

“Me too. Hey, did I tell you that Captain Bastard finally asked Riza out?” Ed asked. For the past week he had gotten about a hundred messages on his phone about the bet he and Roy had made about Roy’s love life. According to Roy’s messages, Ed would be 520 cenz poorer soon.

“He did?! Oh my goodness, that’s so great!” Winry exclaimed. “I’m so happy for Riza, she’s been waiting for it to happen so long.”

“I know, it was about fucking time.”

“Ed. Poor word choice.” Winry gave him an unimpressed look.

“Oh, hush. You never complain when I…”

“Lalalala!!!” Winry covered her ears with her hands, preventing Ed from finishing his sentence. He quieted down, and suddenly his face turned serious.

“Hey, I’ve been thinking… Everyone’s kinda moving forward, and…” he started hesitantly.

“Yeah? I mean, we are too. We are getting married soon, in case you didn’t remember,” Winry noted, continuing to lick her ice cream like she wasn’t curious about what he had to say.

“I remember just fine. I’m trying to say that… I might be ready to take the next step too.” Ed’s face was about as red as back when he had first started to realize he had feelings for Winry.

“What’s the next step?” Winry asked. She enjoyed making him struggle a bit.

“My income is good, and you are finishing your studies soon, and are also doing well financially…”

“What are you trying to say?” Winry was already having a hard time hiding her curiosity and excitement over what he might ask.

“What would you say if we tried?” Ed finally blurted.

“Tried what?”

“To get a baby of our own, of course!” came out of Ed’s mouth louder than he had wished.

“Are you… are you sure?” Winry asked, her eyes almost as big as plate. “I mean, I’d love to, but… are you ready for that? I mean, with what happened…”

“Winry. I am sure. I’ve been thinking about it for a long while. I know that there will be challenging moments, but I also know we are strong enough to get over them. I would love to. Have a baby with you.”

“In that case… YES!” What was left of the ice cream flew on the road when Winry jumped to hug Ed fiercely. “I always wanted to… but I didn’t want to push it…” Winry mumbled against his shirt, and Ed thought he could feel it getting a bit wet.

“Why are you crying?”

“Happy tears, Ed…” she whispered and leaned to kiss him.


End file.
